Tuxedo Harry
by Benneducci
Summary: How can a single Patronus, cast by a wizard so young he shouldn't be able to cast one at all, be powerful enough to drive off a hundred Dementors? A theory takes Harry on a journey halfway around the world. Post-3rd year, no pairings yet.
1. Chapter 1

One bright Friday morning, shortly after final exams, Harry woke early. More specifically, he woke at six with a great furry blob in front of his face and a large paw prodding his nose impatiently. Harry grabbed his glasses and the blob resolved itself into Crookshanks. "Wake up," the enormous squashy-faced feline growled at him. "We need to talk."

Harry rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Very funny, George, talking cat prank's been done to death..owmmmph!" The sudden exclamation came from the fact that Crookshanks had just sank his sharp, pointy teeth into Harry's nose and the stifling of the noise came from the paw shoved in his mouth.

"Are you paying attention now? Good. As I said, we need to talk and before Miss Bossy Boots or any of the assorted numbskulls can wake up is the best time for it. Get dressed and follow me. Fall asleep and I'll bite something a lot more tender than your nose." With that, Crookshanks whapped Harry across the face with his bushy tail and jumped off the boy's chest and to the floor.

Harry got dressed, still unsure if he was really awake or not. It could still be one of the Twins' pranks, but given that they'd finished their OWL exams just yesterday he was sure even they were too tired to be pulling this kind of nonsense so early in the morning. Down in the common room, Crookshanks was waiting for him by the portrait door. The cat said nothing, but when Harry opened the door it trotted ahead down the corridor. Harry followed, still yawning. They passed no one in the halls, and it seemed that even the paintings were still asleep. Everyone wanted to sleep in the morning after final exams, even the teachers.

By the time they were outside, Harry was more awake. Crookshanks led him to a spot by the lake and finally stopped, perching on top of a rock like a very ugly little king. "Have a seat, Potter," the cat said diffidently. "We've got a good deal of ground to cover before everyone else starts waking up."

Harry sat down on the grass with one more yawn. "So if this isn't a prank and I'm not dreaming, is talking ...a new thing for you?"

"No, I've always been able to talk," Crookshanks said in between licks of his paw. "I just don't normally bother talking to humans."

"Why not?"

"Because humans, especially young humans, tend to be idiots. Also, I came here to observe and you learn a lot more if you listen than if you talk."

"Why not talk to Hermione, then?" Harry asked. "She's one of the smartest people I know."

"She's intelligent, but that doesn't stop her from being an idiot. Believe me, I know. I've been observing her for months now, and even after three years of hanging out with you and the Red Balloon she still thinks the answers to everything can be found in bloody books." Crookshanks had the kind of voice that suited a face like his, decidedly sarcastic and low-pitched.

"The Red Balloon?"

"The ninny you and Bossy Boots humor with your company. Red hair, empty head, always lost in airy dreams of things he'll never achieve because he's too bloody lazy to get off his arse. I mean, how stupid do you have to be to not notice that your bloody pet rat is an animagus? For that matter, what kind of an idiot keeps a rat as a pet?"

Harry grimaced. "Are you this mean to everyone?"

"I'm a cat, Potter. My loyalty extends exactly as far as my next kipper, and Bossy Boots hasn't slipped me any in weeks. She's convinced that I'm getting fat. Pfeh! I wish. Between watching you lot, keeping that damn rat from slipping off, and keeping your idiot dogfather out of sight, I've been running non-stop. But this is wasting time. Tell me straight, Potter, have you been having weird dreams lately? Since that night when you and Bossy Boots mucked around with time and you saved yourself from dementors, I mean."

Sitting back, Harry thought about it. "Yeah, I think I have… I'm hot, but it feels good. I don't know where I am, but there are soldiers who obey my commands. We're fighting….monsters, I think. There are too many of them, but we keep holding them back no matter what. There was someone important, but they left… I think we were covering their retreat, holding the line so that they could reach… I don't know. It's too jumbled, but I think I've had that dream a couple times."

"What if I told you that wasn't a dream, but a memory?"

"I'm pretty sure I've never lead troops into battle, Crookshanks."

"Not in this life, no. But who says you've only lived one life?"

Harry scratched his head. "My aunt and uncle always said I came straight from Hell and was going back there as soon I died."

Crookshanks rolled his eyes, a rather disturbing sight. "Yes, and those two know ALL about the true nature of the universe, what with their cowering in the corner every time something 'freakish' happens. Angels and goddesses could land on their doorstep and they'd holler at them to stay off the grass and mind the begonias."

Despite himself, Harry laughed. "They would… So, what do you think these dreams are supposed to mean?" Talking to Crookshanks was starting to feel somewhat normal, perhaps because the cat was so strange-looking it was easy to look at him as just another strange magical creature, like Dobby or a goblin.

The cat sighed and examined a paw. "Long-ago tragedy, great destiny, all the usual rot. Let me just give you the short version. You're a reincarnated prince, born with magical powers and a destiny to protect the world from nasty monster-y things."

Harry groaned. "More destiny? Isn't being the bloody Boy-Who-Lived enough? I just got done messing with time and fighting off soul-sucking demons, last year it was a bloody basilisk, year before that my Defense teacher had a dead evil wizard on the back of his head. Can't I be normal for a while?"

Crookshanks snorted, another disturbing sight. "Why would you want to be normal? Normal is what boring people are, people who don't get to wave sticks and turn things into other things. Normal people don't get to go to schools full of ghosts and talking paintings, they don't get to fly or talk to cats or slay thousand-year-old monsters to save their idiot friend's creepy little sister. Sod normal, you get to be brilliant."

"Oh yes, it's wonderful, everyone gawping at my scar, whispering about me everywhere I go. Magic's brilliant, I'll give you that much, but three years in a row I've had weird and dangerous things happen to me at school. My friends and I have almost died several times. What are they going to do next year, bring Voldemort back from the dead?"

Crookshanks opened his mouth to make a snarky retort, only to quickly dive off the rock when a snowy white owl swooped down at him. "Really, Crookshanks, you're making a terrible mess of this. Perhaps I should try."

Harry gaped. "Hedwig? You too?"

Hedwig carefully perched on the rock in Crookshanks' place. The cat, looking irritated, found a grassy spot to sit on and groom itself. "I apologize for not telling you, Harry, but I was recruited into this business a couple weeks ago. The ability to talk to humans was …part of the incentive package, and it's taken some getting used to." Hedwig's voice was mellow and mature, like he'd always imagined an affectionate relative might sound. "May I try to explain?"

Harry was still reeling. "Alright, but …I'm really very confused."

"Yes, I know." The owl hopped down onto Harry's knee so that he could preen her feathers with his fingers, something that they'd both always found very relaxing. "Let me make it clear to begin with, Harry, you have a choice in this," she said after a few moments of quiet skritching. "You have so much that's hung over you already, no one would blame you if you turned it down, but the choice is yours."

"What happens if I say no? Will you have to leave?"

Hedwig shook her head gently. "If you decline, then the persons involved will look for help elsewhere. Perhaps they'll find it, perhaps not. My loyalty is to you, I'll be staying regardless. I might miss being able to speak aloud, but we've always understood each other well enough I dare say."

He smiled a little. "You're right about that. So, someone wants my help?"

"Yes. Now, this story begins roughly a thousand years ago; long before the Statute of Secrecy there was a society of magic hidden even from the Wizarding World. I'm still coming to grips with the differences and distinctions, but it seems that their magic was based upon the flows of energy between the planets, moons, and the Sun rather than merely calling on the energy within themselves and their wands."

"That sounds pretty powerful…" Harry replied skeptically.

"Indeed, absurdly powerful, and once they harnessed this power they used it to create an empire across the solar system. They couldn't change the fundamental nature of the planets to make them support human life, but they were able to create habitable spaces on each planet and moon so that each of them had a population. Their capital was built on Earth's moon, just past the border of the dark side where no one on Earth could see it."

"So they hid a whole empire from the people on Earth? How did they manage that?"

Hedwig rustled her wings in a sort of shrug. "Harry, you have to understand that this was the Tenth Century, give or take. Scholars of those times, even Wizards and Witches, had to make do with crude telescopes. They weren't able to do more than confirm that the other planets existed and moved through the heavens, spotting cities on them was completely out of the question. The cities on the Moon were simply placed to not be seen, and as for Earth… There was an enclave of the Moon Kingdom on Earth but it was well-hidden and interacted little with the world."

"The Moon Kingdom, huh? I suppose they could have named it something worse, like Hogwarts."

"Be nice, Harry."

"Sorry."

"At any rate, the Moon Kingdom allegedly lasted a thousand years, a period called the Silver Millennium. Don't interrupt, Harry, I'm getting to the important part. It was supposed to be a time of peace, prosperity, and great wonders, none of which we can confirm as whatever ruins remain are all to be found on other planets. The end came, however, when the Moon Kingdom was attacked by an army of monsters from a dark dimension called the Negaverse. They took the Moon Kingdom completely by surprise and overwhelmed the defenses on most worlds in a matter of minutes. The capital on the Moon resisted longer, but eventually it too fell and the Imperial Princess and her protectors had just been slain when the Queen finally acted. She took out the Imperium Silver Crystal, the central focus of ALL the Moon Kingdom's magical energy network, and used its power to banish all of the monsters and their leader back to the Negaverse, sealing the dimension."

"If she could do that, why did she wait until it was too late to save even her own daughter?"

"Power always comes with a price, Harry. Queen Serenity was able to banish the enemy back to the Negaverse, but in doing so she caused every last habitat ward in the Moon Kingdom to collapse."

Harry winced. "You mean…"

"Yes. Every last citizen of the Moon Kingdom who had not already been killed by the Negaverse warriors died when the wards collapsed and the atmosphere they had been breathing vanished. In the space of a few hours, a population of more than a million had become a population of one – a queen dying of grief."

"…What did she do?"

Hedwig rustled. "She did what she could. She gathered the souls of the fallen to her, most particularly those of her daughter and her protectors, and blessed them to be someday reborn and awakened to their true history and power. She empowered animal guardians to watch over the sleeping souls, and to guide them when they awakened. And lastly, she hid the Imperium Silver Crystal for her daughter to someday find and use to bring about a new Moon Kingdom. Then, with her power exhausted and her grief unbearable, she died."

Harry thought about it for a minute. "You think I'm one of those reborn protectors, don't you…"

Crookshanks coughed a couple times, then began to laugh. "You think you're a… Hoo, that'd be a sight! You would look GREAT in the uniform!"

Hedwig shot him a dirty look. "No, Harry, we don't think that you're one of the Senshi. To begin with, they've already all been reawakened. Secondly…"

"They're all girls!" Crookshanks proclaimed with a snicker, then burst out laughing again.

Harry made a face. "Right. So what's so funny about their uniform, then?"

Hedwig, though covered in feathers, almost seemed to blush. "Harry, please understand, Crookshanks and I are recent recruits to the ranks of the guardians, we weren't there in the Moon Kingdom and we don't know why their traditions were what they were…"

"Just tell me and get it over with," he sighed.

"The elite Imperial guards were known collectively as the Sailor Senshi, or Sailor Scouts. Their uniforms strongly resemble…..sailor suit blouses and short, pleated miniskirts."

Harry blinked a few times. Then he began to snicker. The snicker became helpless laughter, and soon Harry was laying on his back on the lake shore, gasping for breath. "Merlin, I needed that…" he croaked out finally. "Do they REALLY dress like that?"

"Sailor tops, miniskirts, tiaras, and high heels," Crookshanks grinned. "What's more, they fight in them too. And somehow, those skirts _always_ stay down."

"Well gee, it must be magic then," Harry said as he managed to sit up. "So if I'm not one of these …Senshi, what am I?"

Hedwig steadied herself on the rock, to which she'd retreated. "We think you might be a Prince."

"Prince? Of what, Wales?"

"Of Mercury, actually."

"Come again?"

Crookshanks finished grooming himself and gave Harry a significant look. "Do you remember when you first had that dream you mentioned?"

He thought about it. "Yes, it was the night after we saved Sirius. I was in the hospital wing, as usual."

"Well, I snuck in that night to check on Miss Bossy Boots, the night after a significant stress is always a good time to spot awakened magic in someone."

"I bed Madame Pomphrey loved that."

"She never knew I was there. You can't keep out a cat that really wants in, we have our ways. At any rate, I was just getting comfortable on Books and Cleverness's bed when I saw the light coming from yours. There it was, plain as day, right there on your forehead, glowing in the dark."

"What, my scar?"

"Like your scar ever did anything that exciting," Crookshanks dismissed. "No, it was the symbol of Mercury, right in the middle of your forehead. It kept glowing for nearly an hour, more than enough time to get Miss Fuss and Feathers here down to see it."

"I have a name, Crookshanks, please use it."

"So Fluffy the Wonder Owl and I called in to Central Command. They confirmed that there was indeed a Prince of Mercury, and asked us to approach you. So here we are."

Harry sighed and stared out at the lake. The giant octopus was swimming in lazy circles, enjoying the rays of the sun as it rose over the mountains. "There's a catch, isn't there…" he said finally.

"Of course there's a catch," Crookshanks said, yawning wide. "Power always has a price, and crowns always come with a catch. Don't trust ANYBODY who offers you something shiny for free."

"Well? What's the catch?" Harry was fairly sure by now that Crookshanks was fonder of the sound of his own voice than he was of Harry or this Moon Kingdom he supposedly served. "You mentioned 'monster-y things', is that the catch?"

"Monster-y things, yeah, that pretty much sums it up. You want to give him the details, Fluffy?"

If looks could kill, Crookshanks would be a scorch mark on the ground. "Yes, I think I'd best. Heaven knows what YOU would tell him. Harry, the Princess and her protectors re-awakened a few years earlier than their guardians would have liked. You see, Queen Serenity banished the forces of the Negaverse, but she couldn't destroy them all. Two years ago, the Negaverse began to breach the barrier again. The Princess was awakened to fight them and each of her four protectors were activated in turn, but while they were magically strong their inexperience only allowed them to slow the Negaverse's plans, not stop them. At first they could only send through a single monster at a time, but as the monsters brought back energy gathered from their victims the barrier grew weaker and weaker. Eventually it collapsed, and the Queen of the Negaverse came to Earth once again."

"I don't remember the world ending during First Year. What happened?"

"The Princess found the Imperium Silver Crystal and used it, this time to blast Queen Beryl to 'moon dust' rather than banish her. It nearly cost her her life, and it DID cost the lives of her four friends, but she managed to win and at least partially restore the barrier."

"Partially? That doesn't sound good."

Hedwig sighed and fluttered her wings. "She chose to focus on bringing her friends back to life and repairing the damage to the Earth first. Furthermore, she wiped the memories of herself and everyone around her, making them forget the events of the previous year - everyone but her animal guardians, thankfully."

"She Memory-Charmed the whole world?" Harry was a bit skeptical.

"No, only those who knew that there were monsters and warriors in miniskirts fighting on the rooftops of Tokyo. It was fewer than you might think."

"Okay, so she saves the world and wipes her own memory? Why?"

"I'm told that she simply wanted to be normal, to attend school and have fun with her friends until she grew up in due course."

Harry nodded. "Makes sense to me. Did it work?"

"…No. A new evil arose less than a month later, and they all had to be awakened and have their memories restored again. They managed to defeat the servants of the Doom Tree well enough, and the Negamoon family after that, but by that point they recognized that they were caught in a cycle and began recruiting new guardians like Crookshanks and myself, so that we could find other reborn members of the Moon Kingdom and recruit them for the fight."

Harry grimaced. "And that's what you want from me, to give up my life here and go fight whatever evil is coming next?"

Hedwig sagged. "What I want is for you to be safe and happy. But I am asking if you are willing to go and fight. The next evil has already come, one of Queen Beryl's generals has escaped from the prison he was trapped in and has begun to build a new Dark Kingdom. According to our sources, he has grown cunning and very dangerous, and the Sailor Scouts already have their hands full."

"But I can't go, the Dursleys would never let me."

Crookshanks grinned. "Wouldn't they? You'd be going to the other side of the world, taking your 'freakishness' with you, and at no expense to them."

"What about Hogwarts? I can't just leave school, can I?"

"You'd be attending school in Japan. And you'd still be learning magic, just not…the kind they teach at Hogwarts. We might even be able to find you someone to teach you Low Magic anyway."

"Low Magic?" Harry asked, feeling a bit insulted.

"Yes, Low Magic. When you draw magical power from yourself or the interactions of a few magical components – like in a potion – it's Low Magic. In High Magic, you draw your power from stars, planets, elements, and from life itself."

In spite of himself, he chuckled. "Hermione's going to be furious to find out she's been learning Low Magic all this time."

"Hah!" Crookshanks laughed. "What's REALLY going to burn her biscuits is that there's a whole other level of history and magic out there – and no one's written a single book about it!"

Harry laughed with him, imagining a Hermione Granger wild-eyed and desperately wanting to consult a book but completely unable to. "Oh, that's going to KILL her….wait. Hermione and Ron can't come, can they?" His stomach sank. His two best friends, the ONLY friends he'd ever had…

Hedwig looked down. "We…don't know. Ron has shown no signs of being a reborn soul or of having any natural High Magic." Crookshanks was about to chime in with an insult, but a glare from Hedwig silenced him …for now. "Even so, I doubt his parents would permit him to go to Japan. Mrs. Weasley seems …very attached to her children."

"What about Hermione?"

"Crookshanks has been watching her all year, since long before I was recruited for this. It has been his opinion that she might have the potential, but if she does she has been rigorously suppressing it."

"Why would she do that?" Harry asked, puzzled.

Crookshanks rolled his eyes. "Bossy Boots doesn't like things she can't understand. I read her journal; she didn't really believe she could be a witch until Professor McGonagall put a wand in her hand and made her try a spell. Every bit of accidental magic she'd had before that, she'd found a Very Rational Explanation for it. Even McGonagall turning into a cat didn't convince her that SHE could do anything."

"That sounds like Hermione, alright. So once she's convinced that it exists and it can be learned, she'll probably turn out to be brilliant at it, even if she's not a …Sailor Scout? That really does sound weird."

"And 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' doesn't?"

"Fair point. So I guess Hermione *could* come, but we don't know yet. What about Voldemort? He's still out there, isn't he?"

"Sure, if you can count being 90% dead as 'out there'," Crookshanks said dismissively. "If he comes back, then he's Dumbledore's problem. And frankly, Voldemort's kinda small change compared to the Negaverse."

Harry made a face. "And that's supposed to make me feel better about going?"

Crookshanks snorted at him. "Like big and scary has EVER stopped you from doing what needed to be done? Besides, we haven't even told you the best reason why you should go."

"Crookshanks, I really don't think we should-"

"Come on, Fluffy, you're the one who wanted to tell him everything. You can't pick and choose on that."

Hedwig sighed. "All right… Tell him. Harry, I apologize, I wanted to save this until you'd made up your mind, so that you would listen to the rest and not just snap to a decision."

"What is it? Is the Moon Princess my aunt or something?" Crookshanks coughed several times. "Oh Merlin, that's it, isn't it?"

"Not quite…" the cat gasped out.

"Actually, we believe you have a sister."

"WHAT?"

"Evidence indicates that you are most likely the Prince of Mercury. One of the Princess's protectors is the Princess of Mercury. The implication is that you are siblings, or perhaps first cousins."

Harry stared at Hedwig. "A sister…?"

"Unless the House of Mercury was big on child marriages and she was your wife," Crookshanks added, fully aware that he wasn't helping.

Harry said nothing. Deep inside, a feeling was welling up, a feeling of longing. Two years ago, when he'd spent night after night staring into the Mirror of Erised, it had shown him scenes of family. His parents were dead, and from the way everyone had always talked his grandparents were all gone too. His father had been an only child, and his mum's sister….well, she was family but she hated everything about him. His uncle and his cousin were even worse. "What's she like?"

"We've never met her, Harry, but from the description we've been given she's a very kind, gentle soul."

"For a butt-kicking magical princess, of course. Sailor Mercury is kind of a brain, supposedly. Like Bossy Boots but nicer about it."

"And bear in mind that if it is as we suspect, you were her brother _in the Moon Kingdom_. In _this_ life, she is an only child and Japanese. If a young Englishman shows up on her doorstep claiming to be a long-lost sibling, there's no guarantee that she or her mother will be open to the idea."

He sighed and nodded to Hedwig. "I guess that's fair. But I'm still not sure I believe all this. I mean, aside from glowing symbols on my forehead, what proof do you have that I've got this 'High Magic'?

"Your Patronus," Crookshanks said simply. "When you drove off a whole pack of Dementors with that thing, it was pretty obvious."

"I don't understand."

"The Patronus Charm straddles the line between Low and High Magic," Hedwig explained. "It creates a shape of pure life energy, focused through positive emotion. Most wizards don't even attempt the Patronus until they are adults, let alone master it at thirteen. Also, a wizard's Patronus can hold one or two Dementors at bay or drive them off if they are particularly strong. Repulsing nearly every Dementor in the British Isles at once would be impossible without High Magic potential."

"Face it, kid," Crookshanks remarked. "If you weren't a Prince, you and your friend both would have been Dementor chow."

Harry sighed. "I guess that makes sense…"

Hedwig fluttered back to his shoulder and rubbed her feathery body against his cheek. "We wouldn't ask this of you if you weren't capable of fighting and winning, and we wouldn't ask if there weren't a need. Please think about it."

Harry stroked her feathers for a few minutes, which was relaxing to both Hedwig and himself. Crookshanks curled up on top of the rock and napped. A few students began to stir out of the castle in search of some morning sunshine. Breakfast would be served soon. Meanwhile, he thought about it. His life would be dangerous, but what was new about that? Trouble seemed to find him whether he wanted it or not. He might be leaving his friends behind, but maybe they'd be able to come with – and even if not, he might be making more friends, maybe even a sister. He would have to leave Hogwarts, but he wouldn't be leaving magic behind. He'd have new magic to learn, and he'd have help in learning it. And he'd never have to go back to the Dursleys again.

"All right…" he breathed. "I'm in. But I don't know how you're going to get me away from the Dursleys, or all the way to Japan."

"Leave that to us," said Hedwig simply. "We have put a fair bit of thought into it and by the time you're back at King's Cross we'll be ready to move."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: If you think this bit of nonsense implies ANY ownership of Harry Potter and/or Sailor Moon, you need help. Also, you hang around with too many lawyers. Shame on you!

Author's Note: I am gratified by the positive response to my first posted story, and especially by the reviews I have received. I hope you continue to enjoy my pseudo-literary ramblings.

* * *

Two days later, after the final exam results were posted and the Leaving Feast, Harry found himself on the Hogwarts Express. He, Ron, and Hermione had found a compartment together, and as Hogwarts shrunk into the distance behind them Hermione admitted that she was dropping another class. "Using the Time Turner every day was exhausting, and there's really no point in taking Muggle Studies next year."

"But you passed the exam with three hundred and twenty percent." Ron protested.

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. It felt like I was teaching the class half the time, Professor Burbage has done a lot of reading but I don't think she's really spent much time among Muggles. Books can't teach you _everything_….what?" Ron and Harry stared at her in shock for several seconds, then Harry began to laugh. Ron quickly joined him, and the laughter took over until both boys were rolling on the floor. "Honestly, you two…" Hermione sighed. "What did I say?"

Harry and Ron had almost stopped laughing several minutes later when the compartment door opened. "Well, Scarhead, it seems that I managed to get rid of a beast after all…" Draco drawled as he stepped inside. "I can get that oaf fired next…" His voice trailed off as he looked down at the twitching teens. "What in Merlin's name is wrong with them?"

Hermione opened her mouth to reply, but Harry stopped her by bursting into full laughter again. That set Ron off again, and the two boys held onto each other for mutual support as they shook. Malfoy just stood there, staring in confusion, his two goons staring stupidly over each shoulder. Finally, Harry pointed a finger at Draco and managed to wheeze out "Books can't teach YOU….anything!" Then he was reduced to convulsing and gasping with strangled laughter.

The penny finally dropped for Hermione, or perhaps it was just the increasingly-befuddled look on Malfoy's face, the face that she had so recently punched, but a most un-Hermione-ly giggle escaped her lips. It became a chuckle, and then she was hanging onto the overhead luggage rack desperately to keep from joining Ron and Harry on the floor as she laughed helplessly. Malfoy just stood there, unable to understand what the hell was so funny, but certain that they were laughing at him. Finally his lip curled in a sneer and he turned and walked out. Crabbe shut the door behind him, and they were gone, completely routed.

When the laughter finally died, Harry dragged himself back onto the seat and straightened out his glasses. "Merlin, I needed that…"

Ron brushed his hair out of his eyes. "Did you see…Malfoy's face? We should've just laughed at him…all this time. I don't think he can handle it."

Hermione, less exhausted than the boys, had a giggle left in her. "I don't think that there's much laughter in the Malfoy house…"

They lapsed into silence for a while, until finally Harry spoke up. "Look…I may not be coming back to Hogwarts next year."

"What?!" exclaimed Ron and Hermione in unison.

Harry scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Even after working on his explanation with Hedwig and Crookshanks, he wasn't sure he could pull it off. "You see…. I've been offered a chance to study in Japan..."

Ron's jaw dropped, but Hermione practically bounced in her seat. "Harry, that's fantastic! They have wonderful schools in Japan! I thought about applying to an exchange program, but then I got my Hogwarts letter…"

"Are you mental, mate? You can't go to Japan! They don't speak English there, do they?"

"Of course not, Ron, they speak Japanese. Well, it's really called Nihongo…"

The red-haired boy ignored Hermione as he usually did. "And you don't speak N'hongy, do you? I certainly don't remember you babbling any N'hongy around the Tower."

"I imagine I'll be learning to speak it," Harry remarked. "I'm not entirely sure it'll happen, you know. They do need to get permission from my guardians and the Dusleys aren't exactly fond of me, especially after blowing up my Aunt Marge last fall. On the other hand, they might agree just to put me on the other side of the planet."

That drew a strange look from both of his friends. "Seriously, you're going to leave Hogwarts? What about Quidditch? Do they play Quidditch in Japan?" Ron asked.

"No, they don't," Hermione replied. "Japan's magical community is so small it's practically non-existent. They aren't members of the ICW, and the few wizards that are born in the country go to school in China or Hawaii."

"Well, if they don't have a school in Japan, how can Harry go there?"

Harry sighed. "It's not a magic school, Ron. It's an ordinary Muggle junior high school in Tokyo."

"You're giving up magic?! Are you DAFT?!"

"Of course he's not giving up magic. …Are you, Harry?"

He shook his head. "The people who told me about this said I can find private tutors who will help me keep up."

"So why are Muggles picking YOU to go to Japan, anyway?"

"RON!"

Harry took a deep breath. "It's some kind of exchange program, the Ministry of Education chose students at random to be offered the chance to go. My name just came up."

"But what about the Statute of Secrecy?" Ron asked hotly. "You're a wizard, they're not supposed to know you bloody exist!"

"He went to primary school as a Muggle, Ron," Hermione interjected. "His name will still be on records. Every witch or wizard who went to Muggle school as a child is listed in the records as attending a private school in Scotland once they start Hogwarts. I read it in –"

"_Hogwarts, a History_." Harry and Ron chorused, grinning at each other.

"_Barton's Guide to Magical Education_, actually," she said with a sniff. "But once the Ministry of Education drew his name, the Ministry of Magic must have taken it on themselves to bring Harry the offer, I imagine."

Harry was beginning to feel sick. He was lying to his two best friends, and Hermione was helping him do it. Ron was still protesting loudly that the whole thing was daft and that Muggle Japan was no place for an English wizard. Harry glanced at where Crookshanks was laying silently on top of Hermione's trunk. Hedwig had left for London the day before, insisting that she needed to oversee the plans on the other end personally. Harry had explained away her absence as Hedwig preferring a long, leisurely flight back to Privet Drive rather than hours in a cage followed by weeks of being penned up by the Dursleys. As for Crookshanks, the cat was perhaps guessing his thoughts because it was shooting him a 'don't you dare' sort of look. As could be expected, that only convinced Harry.

"…Hermione? Ron? What I just said…was a load of codswallop."

"See?" Ron crowed. "I told you he couldn't leave! Good one, mate, you really had her going."

"No, that part was true, I'm going to Japan. But there isn't a Ministry involved, and I'm not going just for school."

Now Harry had two friends glaring at him. "I think, perhaps, you'd better explain," Hermione said in a tone that said NOW.

Harry tried to explain as best he could. He left Crookshanks' and Hedwig's names out of it, identifying them only as 'representatives of the Moon Kingdom', and he wasn't sure he got the whole story exactly right, but he was fairly certain he got the essentials out.

"…So a bunch of Japanese magical princesses need you to go to the other side of the world to help them fight monsters from a secret domain of evil, and they know it's you they need because your Patronus is really powerful and because your forehead glowed in the right way. And one of them may have been your sister in another life." Ron reiterated. "Bloody hell, mate…"

"Language, Ron."

Ron ignored her. "That's so ridiculous and unbelievable that it HAS to be true. No one would tell such a barmy story and expect anyone to believe it if it wasn't real."

"It couldn't possibly be real, so it must be real?" Hermione scoffed. "Oh yes, wonderful logic."

"The world isn't logical, Hermione!" Ron was ready for an argument this time. "Weren't you the one telling us about the daft thing Muggles do where they strap boards to their feet and slide down a mountain on them, and call it a sport? Where's the logic in that?"

"Or when they put giant three-headed dogs inside a school behind a door a First-Year can spell open and assume that just telling everyone to stay away will keep them away?" Harry added, grinning. "Doesn't strike me as very logical either."

"That's people, Ron, I'm talking about the world. The world makes sense."

"People are part of the world, Hermione. Besides, we're getting off the track. What do you think of all this?"

Hermione looked nervous. "I think….that it's a very unlikely story. Are you sure you can trust these representatives?"

Harry smiled. "I'm pretty sure I can. If it turns out they're mistaken, or if things get dodgy, I'll break free and come back. I'll be alright, Hermione, I feel like I need to do this but I'm not going to go in with my eyes closed."

She sighed. "I suppose that's the best I can ask for. It's just….be careful, Harry. I don't want to lose you."

"You won't. You and Ron are the best friends I've ever had, I don't want to lose _you_. I promise I'll write, though I'm sure it'll have to go by Muggle post. Japan's kind of far for owls, you know?"

And in short, that was that. As the Express rumbled on through the day, Harry, Hermione, and Ron talked about all sorts of things, from the important to the meaningless, from speculations about the coming Quidditch World Cup (to which Ron was sure his father would get tickets) to the nature of High Magic (which Hermione, as predicted, desperately wanted to know about). After a while, a letter arrived from Sirius Black, delivered by the smallest, most manic owl any of them had ever seen. Its contents were simple, a promise that he and Buckbeak were safe, an admission that he had sent Harry the Firebolt, ("Ha!" had been Hermione's laconic response), an apology for startling Harry as a dog the night he'd left the Dursley's house, and an offer to Ron to keep the tiny owl that was still whizzing happily around the compartment. Ron, thrilled, actually consulted Crookshanks on the safety of the pygmy bird, and once reassured seemed eager to keep it.

The letter concluded with _P.S.: I've arranged for a small surprise to be waiting for you at King's Cross. I hope you'll like it; your aunt and uncle might even like it too._

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged. "I dunno, but I bet whatever it is will have Uncle Vernon turning purple. They're …not fond of magic, you know."

Ron snorted. "That's putting it mildly." At Hermione's questioning look, he elaborated. "The summer after first year, the twins and I had to break him out of his uncle's house. They had ruddy _bars_ installed on his window, and were feeding him through a cat-flap."

Hermione was shocked and appalled. "They locked you up? Oh, Harry… Why didn't you say anything?"

"What was there to say?" Harry replied with a shrug. "At least I had a room to be locked in then. Before Hagrid showed up to give me my Hogwarts letter, I was living in the cupboard under the stairs." Even now, the memory of Hagrid looming over Uncle Vernon drew a smile.

"But…that's horrible! You've been our friend for three years and you never said anything!" She was beginning to tear up.

Harry put a hand on her shoulder uncomfortably. "I just wanted to be normal. The Dursleys did their best to make sure I was known as a freak and a dangerous undesirable everywhere I went, so when I got to go to Hogwarts I was hoping that if I had to be a freak, I'd be a freak among freaks and not stand out. Then I found out how famous my bloody forehead is…" he sighed.

"Well look on the bright side," Ron said with a grin. "You'll still be a freak in Japan, but it'll be because you're English, not because you're famous."

"Honestly, Ronald…" Hermione said automatically.

Harry laughed. "He's got a point. I'll be the Boy-Who-Transferred instead. It'll be a nice change."

"Yes, but… Your aunt and uncle, shouldn't something be done about them? Couldn't you talk to Professor Dumbledore about how they treat you? Or Professor McGonagall?"

"Hermione, we just left for the summer. If all goes well, I'll be leaving for Japan soon. I won't need to worry about the Dusleys anymore."

Of course, she refused to let it go. "Harry, I want you to promise me, if you don't go to Japan then you will write to Professor McGonagall about how the Dursleys treat you. Maybe it can be arranged for you to stay at Hogwarts instead."

"Or at the Burrow with my family! You know Mum and Dad like you, and it's not like you'll be in the way. Percy'll probably move out now that he's graduated, so maybe you could have his room."

"That'd be brilliant, Ron, but let's see how this plays out first. I'm actually pretty excited to see Japan."

"Harry, promise me. I'm not going to let you sneak out on this one."

"Fine," he sighed. "I promise."

"You promise what?"

"I promise that if I don't get to go to Japan this summer, that I'll write to a professor about the Dursleys."

"Now was that so hard?"

"Yes."

Hermione huffed and was quiet for a while. Harry enjoyed the quiet, while beginning to understand why Crookshanks had nicknamed his friend 'Bossy Boots'. The snub-nosed cat was obnoxious and cruel, but he usually had a point. Even so, Harry was going to miss her, bossiness and all.

By the time Hermione emerged from her huff and Harry lost his second game of chess, the train was nearly to King's Cross. The three of them quickly changed out of their robes. Hermione stared at Harry's baggy hand-me-downs, finally understanding why he dressed the way he did, but when he looked at her and shrugged silently she thankfully said nothing.

When the train pulled in at the station, the trio retrieved their trunks and disembarked amid the usual madness of students trying to find their families. Ron was quickly retrieved by his brothers and drug off to where Mr. and Mrs. Weasley waited. A few moments later, the twins returned and dragged Harry to their family circle as well, where Mrs. Weasley pressed both an enormous hug and a hatbox full of spelled meat pies on him. She'd obviously decided that he'd need extra food this summer, and so she'd made him a supply of shrunken and preserved goodies. Harry was grateful, even if he didn't spend the summer wasting away at the Dursleys' he'd still be grateful for a taste of home for as long as they lasted.

After the Weasleys finally began to pack up their trunks for the trip home, Hermione grabbed Harry next and lead him over to her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Granger were much, much quieter than the Weasleys, but they were no less kind and were happy to meet one of their daughter's school friends. Harry was embarrassed by their friendliness and thrilled at the pride they exhibited in their daughter, but he managed to be polite and made a good impression on them despite his ramshackle appearance. They offered to stay until Harry's guardians arrived, but Harry managed to dissuade them. If it was the Dursleys that came for him, the last thing he wanted to do was expose Hermione's parents to their nastiness.

When the Grangers had vanished through the barrier to King's Cross Station, Harry looked around. There were still plenty of families around the platform welcoming their students home, but after a minute Harry spotted a man standing alone. He was wearing a Muggle suit, carrying a sign, and had a snowy white owl on his shoulder. "Hedwig…" Harry said quietly, and began dragging his trunk that direction.

A few feet from the man, he stopped short. The sign the man held was covered in red scribbles in what Harry hoped was Japanese, but after a moment the scribbles re-arranged themselves into words: HARI POTTA. Harry blinked a few times, then looked up at the man's face and blinked a few more times. "…Sirius?"

"Surprise," Sirius Black said with a grin. For an escaped prisoner and a man wanted (wrongly) for murder in both the Muggle and Magical worlds, he looked downright suave. His long hair was washed and combed and pulled back in a high ponytail, his beard was trimmed into a neat goatee, and a silver earring dangled from his right ear. "But while we're in public, you really should call me Burakku-san. We don't want to give the game away, do we?"

"Are you mad?" Harry asked. "Your poster is on every pillar in this station! Even with the fancy clothes, you'll be recognized!"

Sirius shook his head. "I've been here an hour and no one's looked at me twice. Well, no one but a few lonely mothers. Ladies love a handsome foreign man in an expensive suit. Too bad one of them was my cousin Narcissa, it took all the fun right out of it," he said and made a face.

"Narcissa Black?" Harry asked in confusion.

"That's her maiden name. It's Narcissa Malfoy now."

"…Draco's mum…was _flirting_ with you? Oh, Merlin, I think I'm going to be sick."

"Now you know how _I_ feel. I was starting to flirt back when I realized who she was."

"Ugh, I don't need to hear this… But seriously, why hasn't anyone recognized you?"

Sirius patted the breast pocket on his suit coat. "A little piece of Moon Kingdom magic, they called it a Luna Pen. It gives me a disguise that only a close friend or someone I want to can see through. Since Remus isn't here, that leaves you."

Harry squinted at him. "But you don't look any different. Aside from the nice clothes, I mean."

Sirius grinned and tossed his sign in the waste bin. "Well trust me, it works. I told it to turn me into a suave, sophisticated man about town, and it did."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Let's get out of here."

Sirius grabbed Harry's trunk, and Hedwig deigned to enter her cage, and together they passed through the barrier to the Muggle side of King's Cross. It was quite busy as usual, and no one paid them any attention. "How did you get mixed up in this?" Harry asked. "I thought you were on your way to Borneo or somewhere else to hide."

"Buckbeak is. Specifically he's flying to Germany, there's a nature preserve there where no one will notice an extra hippogriff any time soon. For my own part, the day after my daring escape your owl came to me and started talking. That was a bit of a shock." Sirius grinned. "She asked if I'd like to lie low in a country that will never turn me over to the Ministry of Magic and where I could look after you myself. The details are a bit disturbing, of course, but the important thing is that you get far, far away from your aunt and uncle, right?"

"I'm not sure they told you everything, if that's your reaction."

Sirius loaded Harry's trunk onto a cart. "Let's see… Ancient magic kingdom, elegant queen…"

"I don't think they said anything about her being elegant, just powerful."

"A queen is always elegant, Harry, just like a princess – or any girl, really – is always beautiful. Treat her like that regardless of reality, and you'll always be able to get into her-"

"AHEM! I'm thirteen years old! I don't need to hear whatever you were about to say!"

Sirius grinned wickedly. "Actually, we WILL be having that talk soon. But where was I? Right. Kingdom, queen, lots of magic, bad queen with lots of evil magic, sneak attack, cataclysmic defeat, dead princess, dead kingdom, good queen finally takes care of business, sets everyone up to be reborn a thousand years later, presumably dies. Thousand years later, we have pretty magic princesses fighting worse and worse monsters until they have to send out for help, which may include you. And you might have a big sister in a roundabout reincarnatey sort of way. Did I miss anything important?"

"…Aside from the fact that 'reincarnatey' cannot possibly be a word, no. But you're okay with all this?"

"Harry, I spent twelve years living in a stone box reliving the worst days of my life over and over, followed by a year on the run eating rats and wishing that each one was a certain childhood friend. Taking my godson away from Petunia Dursley and her pompous dolt of a husband and taking him on a journey absolutely NO ONE at Hogwarts will approve of? Oh yes, much more fun. As for all the 'talking owl' stuff? I grew up in the magical world, Harry, with teacups that whistle and mirrors that give fashion advice. I can believe in quite a bit." A passing woman overheard a little of that and gave Sirius an incredulous stare. His response was to turn his grin on her and waggle his eyebrows. She blushed and hurried away. "Ahh, I missed the world."

In spite of himself, Harry grinned. Compared to that night in the Shrieking Shack, Sirius Black seemed like a whole different person. He seemed to be the sort that thrived with other people around, especially if he could command a little of their attention. Even more so if they were women. "So are we going to see the Dursleys next?" Harry asked.

Sirius shook his head. "That's already taken care of. I got them to sign a whole raft of legal documents, both magical and Muggle, releasing you into my care. They didn't recognize me, which is understandable since I only met them once at James and Lily's wedding, so I told them that I was the head instructor for a new magical school in Tokyo that specializes in problem cases. I think what sold them was when I told them that your tuition was being paid for by private funds and that you probably wouldn't be coming back – ever. They started signing so fast that I couldn't resist slipping a couple magical contracts into the stack as well."

"…What sort of contracts?"

"One that says that if they voluntarily give up any information about where you've gone to a witch or wizard, they'll lose the ability to speak for a month each time, and another that binds them and their pig of a son to stand up and sing 'God Save the Queen' at 6pm every Tuesday for the next five years. I hope for their neighbors' sake that they've got decent singing voices."

"They don't."

Sirius shrugged. "Well, we'll be in Japan where we can't hear them. And if they don't like singing, then the penalty for defaulting is that they donate a thousand galleons to St. Mungo's in my name."

"…Do they know your name? Because they did put your escape in the Muggle newspapers too."

"Nope, it's all spelled out in the contract, they have to donate it 'in my name'. So perhaps we'll end up with a Vernon Dursley Botched Obliviation Ward or something. And the best part is that once they donate, they'll be on St. Mungo's list of People To Bother For More Donations for years to come. Being a Muggle can't protect you from that."

By this point, Harry was leaning against a pillar desperately trying to stifle another laughing fit. Uncle Vernon's views on charity were very memorable and not at all positive. He did donate to 'the right causes', but only because they were the right causes to be seen donating to, and he still begrudged every penny. To see Uncle Vernon's face when he realized he had to donate to a _magic_ charity…

His godfather rested a foot on the cart and watched. "Just breathe, alright? It wasn't _that_ funny, and we really don't need to make a scene here…" And then, simply because Sirius Black had a warped, twisted sense of humor long before the Dementors 'helped' him out, he squared his shoulders, folded his arms, and in a fairly passable imitation of Miss Hermione Granger, said "Honestly, Harry…" For the second time that day, Harry Potter rolled on the floor howling with laughter.

Several people and even a couple station guards stopped to see if the boy was alright. Sirius simply shrugged and explained that he'd been torturing the boy with the most dreadful puns imaginable. Since Harry was obviously not hurt, just hysterical, the guards simply demanded Sirius demonstrate his destructive comedic ability as they'd been on shift all day and were in sore need of a joke, good or bad. Suffice it to say that Sirius's highly improbable story about the two flamenco dancers who kidnapped Maggie Thatcher for a romantic getaway in Venice left the crowd looking for rotten fruit to throw, and when Harry finally got himself under control again everyone went their own way.

Harry staggered along, his ribs aching as he glared at Sirius. "You said we shouldn't make a scene."

Sirius grinned unrepentantly. "No, I said we didn't _need_ to make a scene, that's not the same thing at all. But you needed the laugh, and when a certain pointy-bearded old man tries to figure out where you went, he'll focus on King's Cross where you were spotted howling like a monkey and perhaps completely miss us taking the ferry to France."

"Why are we going to France?"

"Two reasons. Three, really. First, it's less obvious and therefore we should have fewer hassles. Secondly, we need to do a bit of shopping and if you have the choice between London and Paris for buying clothes, always choose Paris." Harry groaned. "Oh hush, pup. I have exactly one decent outfit, I'm wearing it, and it's made of moondust. I'd rather not risk having my clothes disappear mid-flight, thank you, and you could do with something better to wear yourself. You won't be able to hide that saggy garbage the Dursleys gave you under a robe in Japan, and you want to make a good impression on your reincarnatey sister, right?"

"'Reincarnatey' still isn't a word, you know. What's the third reason?"

"The third reason is because one should absolutely _never_ turn down an opportunity to flirt with French women."

Harry rubbed his forehead and vowed to somehow, someday, get his revenge.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own every last pixel in this story. Sadly, I don't own the pattern they make, especially when those patterns involve characters not created by me. But I still own the pixels, and I could prove it if the pattern of the ownership document wasn't copyrighted by someone else too! Dang.

* * *

The journey from London to Paris proved to be another exercise in sitting and waiting. Outside King's Cross, Sirius hailed a cab that took them to a different rail station (purely to annoy whoever ended up tracking them), where they took the evening train to Dover. At Dover, Sirius produced passports that declared them to be Steven and Gerald Boardman, and they boarded the ferry together. Harry sat by the window the whole time, watching the setting sun reflect off the water, and Sirius spent his time chatting up one of the other passengers. At Calais, they had dinner in a little café. Sirius did the ordering, the food was excellent, and the pair of them fell upon it like starving wolves.

After dinner, they sleepily took a cab to the train station, where tickets for the night train to Paris were purchased. Though more modern than the Hogwarts Express, it was similar in that it really wasn't all that express-like. The night train made its way through the countryside at a reasonable pace, and the compartments had fold-down beds that Sirius immediately took advantage of. Harry let Hedwig out of her cage and let the snowy owl stretch her wings before asking "How are you doing, Hedwig?"

She sighed and twisted her head from side to side to loosen it. "I do hate that cage, but since flying to Japan on my own would take months I'll just have to make the best of it. How are YOU feeling, Harry? You look very tired."

He sighed. "I am. It's …been a very long day and it feels really odd to be leaving behind everything like this. And don't get me wrong, I like Sirius, but why did you pick him?"

Hedwig gently stirred the air in the compartment with her wings. "He's an adult – or can pass for one, at least, his first allegiance is to the memory of your parents and to you, he has little to tie him to England, and he isn't afraid of foreign places like most British wizards. In fact, he's been to Japan before."

"Really?"

"Indeed, according to Sirius he and your father went on a 'madcap adventure' there in the summer after their sixth year. He didn't give me any details, but from the look on his face there was probably a highly inappropriate story or three there."

"There is," Sirius commented as he cracked open an eye. "And unless you'd like to hear it, I advise you both to get some sleep. Or at least let me get some."

Harry and Hedwig took the hint and folded down the other bunk. The train arrived at Paris just after sunrise the next morning, and while none of them had gotten as much rest as they'd have liked, they were functional at least. At the station, Sirius pulled Harry into the washroom. "I should have given you this last night," he remarked as he pulled out a small box.

"Sirius, I'm not getting engaged at thirteen, least of all to _you_." Harry quipped nervously.

His godfather let out a small bark of a laugh. "You're not my type either. This is a Translating Charm, like the one I'm wearing. We're going to have to pierce your ear, I'm afraid, but that won't take long and I remember enough healing to keep it clean and painless."

Harry opened the box; inside was a plain silver earring. He took it out and examined it. "This will let me understand French?"

"It lets you understand and speak French, Japanese, Cantonese, and Mandarin. It'll also give you a head start in learning them; the more time you spend conversing in a language the more it'll sink into your head. It doesn't help you with reading and writing, though, that you'll have to learn through study. You didn't by any chance take Ancient Runes this year, did you?"

"No, Ron talked me into taking Divination with him. Horrible class…"

"That's a pity. Runes is a tough class, but it would have given you some experience in identifying fiddly little characters. Well, you'll just have to do it the hard way, then, but being able to talk to people will give you the leg up. Let's get this done before you have time to get nervous about it." Sirius produced his wand and carefully used a spell to pierce Harry's right earlobe, and another to clean and cauterize the wound. A Numbing Charm after that made it stop hurting, and the ring was put in place.

When they stepped back out of the washroom, it was like the whole world had changed. Everyone around him was still speaking French, but suddenly it made sense to Harry. "This is fantastic, where did you get these?"

Sirius grinned. "James and I bought them from a travel agency back in the Seventies. They cost more than our airline tickets, but oh they were worth it… They've been in my box at Gringott's ever since."

"How did you get into Gringott's? Wouldn't they have turned you over to the Aurors?"

"Well, I had my disguise on yesterday morning and time to kill waiting for the Express, so I walked down the middle of Diagon Alley in broad daylight to go in the front door. I did have to reveal my identity in private, but as it turns out the goblins don't care much about my criminal status so long as I don't do anything to them or start a fight in their bank. Gringott's and what's below it are sovereign territory, thanks to the Gramhault Treaty of …I forget when exactly. But anyway, it seems that they cut their Most Valued Customers a great deal of slack when it comes to things like warrants for their arrest."

"Most Valued Customer?"

Sirius winked at a passing woman. "Rich. Apparently my parents didn't disown me properly when they kicked me out, and as a result I inherited the repulsive house I grew up in and a disgusting amount of money when the last of them died. I didn't have time to deal with it all, so I exchanged a few thousand galleons into francs and yen, and then hired a goblin account manager who will receive further instructions by Muggle post. Suffice it to say, we're not going to be hurting for money any time soon."

Harry reached up to finger the earring. "So this was…?"

"That was your dad's, yes. He only wore it during the trip, but I wasn't about to let him throw out a perfectly good bit of enchanted goblin silver just because his girlfriend didn't like it. I was hoping there was going to be a next time, you see…" Sirius sighed. "There wasn't. James and Lily got married straight out of school, and then …you know."

"Right. But what about Professor Lupin? Why didn't he go?"

"I invited him, but he refused. There was going to be a full moon during the trip, and he insisted that there was no way he was willing to make James and I try to contain a werewolf in unfamiliar territory in a strange country. We argued about it, but he was right and we eventually agreed. As for Peter, well…" he said with a faint growl. "Peter was scared to go abroad. Even after six years of hanging around with us, his idea of an adventure was a weekend in Cornwall. Looking back, it was just as well."

Harry had no response to that, partly because he was lost in thought. The idea of having something else of his dad's was nice, the invisibility cloak was very useful but this was something he could wear all the time. Besides, he thought as he glanced at a window, it made him look and feel a bit like a pirate.

Sirius was as good as his threat; after a pleasant breakfast in a sidewalk café, he took Harry shopping in Paris. There are few words to describe the hell that is shopping with a woman in one of the fashion capitals of the world when you are a teenage boy, and she has a great deal of funds and an excuse to outfit you completely. Thankfully, those words weren't needed, as Sirius Black's idea of a shopping expedition was probably a great deal less exhausting but perhaps far more embarrassing. Sirius wasn't interested in buying Harry a full wardrobe, they'd only have to load it straight on an airplane and that would be annoying and cost extra and they'd probably lose the bags somewhere over the Himalayas. No, Sirius simply wanted two or three good outfits for each of them… and to introduce his godson to the delights of French women.

His method was simple. Once inside a shop, he'd commandeer the attentions of the female shop employees by being rich, charming, handsome, and rich, then he'd announce that he was bringing his nephew shopping as a reward for saving a female schoolmate's life from a rabid wolf. Worse, he would actually tell the story, making it all sound very plausible and heroic. Then he would turn the woman loose on Harry with an admonition to "make him look like the dashing young man he is, so we can burn the trash he is wearing."

Harry felt something like a wounded antelope on the Serengeti, facing down a pack of lionesses. The shop women descended on him in a horde, pronouncing him 'simply adorable', and whisked him off to the changing rooms. What followed him was a whirlwind of bewilderment and humiliation, as Harry was stripped to his underwear, measured, made to try on several different outfits, made to show them off to his audience, fussed over, and above all flirted with to the point of blushing non-stop. When each group finally released him from their clutches, Sirius would thank them profusely, tip each of them, and buy whatever they had assembled plus what he had picked out for himself (he would usually still have the help of one or two of the shopgirls, which he quite enjoyed). Once they were out of the shop, he would send Harry to a washroom to change back into his Dursley clothes and they would repeat the experience at the next shop.

They visited four shops in this manner, and by the time they were done Harry couldn't decide if he wanted to murder his godfather or simply die of embarrassment. Sirius, of course, was grinning like a madman and convinced that he'd done his godson an enormous favor. "You may as well get used to it, Harry," he said. "You're heading for a life where you'll be surrounded by older girls, you're a good-looking kid and will only get better, and you've got this self-deprecating hero aura that just makes women go squishy inside. I'm not expecting you to take advantage of the attention, but you shouldn't hide from it either. Most of all, you shouldn't let it go to your head – not that I think that's likely for you. Magic knows it went to your father's…"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, still unable to walk straight.

"James wasn't the Boy-Who-Lived or anything like that, thank Merlin, but he was good-looking, talented with magic, and a star on the Quidditch pitch. He got a pretty big head about it, though frankly every teenage boy turns into a rotten little berk at some point. Moony was the best of us, and even he had his snotty days. Anyway, James and I both got pretty arrogant for a while. It took your mum to straighten him out, and eventually the two of them got my head mostly out of my backside. It took Peter and Azkaban to finish the job, I think." Sirius sighed. "I'm probably going on too much, aren't I? I apologize for that, it's just that I've had a dozen years in a stone box to think things over and no one to really talk to about it."

Harry thought about it. "No, I don't mind. I …like hearing about my parents, even if it's not good stuff." He grimaced at that, it sounded wrong somehow.

"No, Harry, your parents were good people. You've probably heard THAT a lot." Harry nodded and Sirius grinned. "But they weren't perfect. They made mistakes and had bad days just like everyone else. I should know, I mooched off them quite a bit. Lily used to yell at me to go home before she had me tagged, registered, and chained to a shed in the garden. I swear, I almost took her up on it a few times." He laughed at Harry's expression. "No, I didn't have a pash for your mum or anything like that, I just hated being alone. Still do, in fact. Being an Auror recruit paid well enough that I could afford a small flat in muggle London, but I didn't spend a lot of time there. Moony would come around when invited, but after graduation he spent more and more time in the muggle world and things got a bit awkward. Peter… Well, Peter got a job in a shop off Diagon Alley and always seemed to be busy at work. In retrospect, he was probably busy at something else…"

"So yes, I was practically the Potter family dog in those days. I saw both your parents at their best and worst, even when the worst wasn't in response to my antics. James had trouble letting a joke die, even long after it stopped being funny. Lily was NOT a morning person, and if you so much as spoke to her before she'd had breakfast and a chance to sort out her hair and face she'd like as not hex you. They were both pretty headstrong, and when they disagreed on something it was best to stay out of it and let them settle it themselves. They were getting better about it when you came along, but hoo boy, in the early days…"

Sirius reached over and ruffled Harry's already-messy hair. "They were my best friends and I loved them. You've got every reason to be proud of your parents, Harry, but don't let anyone convince you they were some kind of perfect storybook prince and princess. They'd be proud of you, not because of the great big things you've done…well, okay, they would be proud of those, but they'd be more proud that you did them to protect your friends and the people around you. I'm proud of you too, though I can't accept the credit for a single bit of you."

Harry ran his fingers through his hair to try in vain to make it lie down. "…Thanks, Sirius. So…where do we go from here?"

"Well, I imagine that we will keep on bonding until we develop a comfortable immature adult/punk kid relationship, with lots of pranks and bad jokes mainly because that's who I am, and hopefully a girlfriend or six for each of us…"

"Not that, you git! Where are we GOING? We're in the middle of Paris, aside from that I have no bloody idea where we are."

"Well, look to your left, you see that big, pointy, iron thing that sort of looks like the Eiffel Tower?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"Want to go see it while we're here? Our flight leaves this evening, so we've got the time for a little sight-seeing."

Harry thought that over for a minute. "That would be fantastic. The Dursleys did their best never to take me anywhere, so the most exotic place I've ever seen is Diagon Alley."

"Harry, my boy, stick with me and I'll show you the world. Sadly, most of it will be through the window of a passenger plane…" With a shrug and a grin, Sirius led Harry to an alley where their purchases were placed in Harry's trunk and then shrunk down to fit in a pocket. Hedwig was let out of her cage to get in one last good fly before she would be subjected to the indignity of air travel, and the two humans made their way on foot to the Eiffel Tower.

When they reached the foot of the enormous structure they fell in with one of the tour groups. Of course, Sirius chose to join the group that included a quartet of cute Swedish girls. They turned out to be recent secondary school graduates, backpacking across western Europe for the summer before starting college. At first they were a bit leery of the mid-thirties stranger, but Harry's presence reassured them that he wasn't just some letch trying to pick up girls way too young for him (If Harry's earring had been able to translate Swedish, he would have fallen over laughing) and soon they were all chatting away happily. The shortest of them, Inge, declared herself to be Harry's big sister for the afternoon, and soon all six were in an elevator climbing its way up to the observation deck.

For his own part, Harry found Inge and her friends much less intimidating than the French shop women, and he was able to chat with them with only slight embarrassment. When asked what sports he played at his obscure Scottish boarding school, he did his best to talk about football using what jargon he'd picked up from Dean Thomas, relegating himself to a defensive position while talking about Katie, Alicia, and Angelina as the most dangerous scorers at the school. Oddly enough, his enthusiasm for his teammates impressed his listeners enough that they never caught on that he was lying out both ears and actually knew very little about football.

The elevator's destination put conversation to an end for a while. Harry made his way to the railing as quickly as was polite, and was immediately engrossed in the view. The city of Paris stretched out before him on each side, and all he could do was drink in the sight. The land around Hogwarts was pretty in its own rough, cranky, Scottish way, but the only time Harry got a view anywhere near this good was on a broomstick – and there was usually something else he needed to do at the time. The Astronomy tower had a great view too, but it was only open at night for some reason. Here, Harry had no reason not to soak in the world around him, so he did. His gaze swept the streets with their tiny cars and tinier pedestrians, the curves of the river, buildings that looked centuries old, buildings that looked like they were built last week, even a few that were under construction.

Harry just stood there and stared for what felt like a few minutes before he was snapped out of it by a touch on his shoulder. Inge smiled, then gave him an affectionate hug. "You look like I woke you up from a dream."

He smiled, embarrassed from both the contact and her comment. "I think you did. The city is …beautiful."

"Yes, it is… But your uncle says that you must go soon or you will miss your airplane. You've been watching the city for at least an hour."

"Have I?" he asked, scratching the back of his head. "Wow."

She giggled. "Yes, but it was worth it, I can tell from the look on your face. It was good meeting you, Harry. Enjoy your journey." And with that, she kissed him on the cheek and escorted him back to the elevators, where Sirius was waiting with the rest of the Swedish girls and a souvenir beret that covered Harry's messy hair perfectly. At the foot of the tower, they parted ways with friendly words and waves, and Sirius managed to keep a straight face for three hundred yards before finally telling Harry that he had a gleaming mark on his cheek from Inge's lip gloss.

They arrived at the airport two hours before their flight, and they were nearly late getting to their plane. The reason was simple – the ticket agents had no idea what to do about an owl in a cage. You could not put an animal in the passenger compartment, argued one agent relentlessly. But it was not safe for a bird to ride among the luggage, replied the other. The argument went round and round in circles, with both agents becoming more heated and colorful in their opinions. A baggage attendant was consulted, as was an official of the airline. An expert on ornithology was being searched for, when Sirius finally broke through the argument and asked if he could just buy a third seat on the plane for the owl and be done with it. The agents accepted this compromise after a couple more minutes of bickering, and privately Harry was just glad they hadn't looked twice at his shrunken trunk.

The flight from France to Japan was boring and interminable. Expanding Harry's trunk to retrieve a book was out of the question, and the magazines in the seatback pocket were all in French, as were the in-flight movies. They did their best to sleep through as much of it as possible, and when the plane stopped to refuel in New Delhi they didn't bother to get off. Sirius ended up sharing a few tips on dealing with boredom with Harry, though obviously turning into a dog and giving himself a good, thorough scratch was not an option. By the time they arrived at Narita Airport they were hungry, tired all over again, bored silly, and looking out at afternoon sunshine. By simple agreement they caught a taxi to the nearest hotel, rented a pair of rooms (after the last two days they were ready to be alone for a few hours), and slept until morning.

In the morning, Harry and Sirius were joined at breakfast by a man with a cat carrier. "Excuse me, are you Hari Potter and Shirius Burack?" The translation charms were working fine, but for some reason names came through as they were pronounced rather than as they were meant, even names that had meaning, like 'Black'.

"Yes, we are, can I help you?" Sirius replied, teacup in one hand.

The man bowed. "My name is Mamoru Chiba, I am here to greet you on behalf of our …moon-watching club. Welcome to Japan."

"Thank you, Chiba-san. Won't you join us? And what…or should I say who, do you have there?"

Mamoru sat down, placing the cat carrier on the fourth chair. "His name is Artemis…is something wrong, Potter-san?"

Harry thumped his chest to dislodge the bit of fish in his throat. "I'm sorry, Mister Chiba, it's just that….Artemis was a girl goddess, wasn't she?"

"Would you like me to make fun of YOUR name?" came a quieter voice from the cat carrier. "Why would anyone want pots covered in hair?"

Harry flushed. "I'm sorry, Mr. Artemis. It just came out."

"Apology accepted."

Mamoru smiled. He was a youngish man, maybe twenty years old, with wavy dark hair and watchful eyes. He was handsome and very tall for a Japanese man, but there was something in his face that Harry could relate to. "Please excuse Artemis, he's been touchy about that ever since the girls found out it belonged to a goddess. They've been teasing him relentlessly."

"Someone named after a rabbit has no room to talk…" Artemis grumbled inside his box.

"Just call her Meatball Head, that one still gets to her." Mamoru said with a wicked grin.

"Look, Chiba-san, we've just flown over five thousand miles on the advice of two talking animals who say that you need Harry's help. Can you please tell us more about what we've gotten ourselves into?" asked Sirius.

"Yes, of course, that's part of why I'm here, but this is a conversation we should probably not have in public. When you are ready to leave, I will take you somewhere safe."

Mamoru joined them for breakfast, and they chatted about more mundane things as they ate. Mamoru was a college student nearing the end of his bachelor's degree, and the eldest of the reincarnated Moon Kingdom subjects (though he did admit that there was one woman named Setsuna who had been alive the whole time, protected by her unnamed duty). He was also relieved to hear that Sirius and Harry had their own money, as while he was comparatively well-off he was still living on an inheritance from his deceased parents. They were still welcome to stay with him until they found a place of their own; his apartment had far more space that he generally used.

After breakfast, they checked out of the hotel and climbed into Mamoru's car. It was a large vehicle for Japan, but Mamoru admitted that he couldn't fit into most Japan-made automobiles, and so had bought an American sedan. "Unfortunately, the girls have taken it as a sign that they should beg me every time they want to go to the beach or somewhere since all five of them can fit in here." He sighed. "I really need to grow a tougher backbone."

"So, where would you like me to start?" Mamoru asked as he pulled out of the parking lot. "It's going to take us more than an hour to drive back to the Juuban district in morning traffic."

Sirius was sitting in the front seat, as he too needed the legroom. "Tell us about what you are facing. What is your enemy like?"

Mamoru thought about it for a minute. "The leader is named Jedite. He was originally one of the four Generals of Queen Beryl, the leader of the Negaverse both when they destroyed the Moon Kingdom and when they first came back to Earth. Jedite was the first one given the job of gathering energy to fuel the invasion, but Sailors Moon, Mercury, and Mars kept stumbling onto his front operations and destroying them. He finally ended up challenging them to an open battle, and when that failed Queen Beryl trapped him in a stasis crystal and used him as décor for her throne room to motivate the other Generals. He was still there after Queen Beryl and the other three Generals were destroyed, and apparently the stasis failed sometime last summer. Since the Negaverse was leaderless and we've been occupied dealing with other foes, he took some time to consolidate his rule and study the mistakes of the past. He returned to Earth four months ago, and he's been a lot more successful since."

"What is he doing different?" Harry asked from the back seat.

"The first time around, he would set up a front operation, like a gym or a cram school, by possessing the owners with a yoma and draining everyone who came in." Harry wanted to ask what a yoma was, but decided not to interrupt. "Through force of coincidence or by noticing the after-effects of the draining on people, the Sailor Scouts would figure out what was going on, destroy the yoma, and drive off Jedite if he happened to be around. They were reluctant to fight him directly since he seemed to be human, and he preferred to fight only when backed into a corner. When he _did_ fight, though, he was actually pretty strong."

"How strong?" Sirius asked.

"Strong enough to possess a couple passenger planes and try to run Sailor Moon over with them."

"Ouch. What happened?"

"Sailor Mars found a way to turn them back on him, he retreated, and then his Queen trapped him in crystal and used him as a paperweight to show her feelings on failure."

"And now he's free again. What is he like now?" Sirius continued.

"Now…he's more cunning. I think he's gotten more powerful, but we don't see him very often. He's still using fronts to gather energy, but he's more careful in how he takes it. He's been setting things up to take less of each victim's energy than before."

"And that's bad?" Harry asked.

"Well, it's less bad for the individual victim. Before, one of the people he drained would be staggering home looking like a zombie or they'd collapse and be recovering in bed for days. Now, most of his victims walk out feeling a little tired and the next morning they have more or less recovered. This means that it's harder for us to spot anything happening, and so he can keep an operation running for longer before we spot it. All in all, he gets a much bigger harvest, one that would have made Queen Beryl very happy with him. He also re-invests some of that energy in his followers, which means stronger and more obedient yoma."

"So, what IS a yoma?" Sirius asked.

"A yoma is a monster, plain and simple. They have no souls and they live off of energy, either the ambient negative energy of the Negaverse or whatever they can steal from another living thing. The ones we've fought tend to look like women with strange mutations or attachments, and generally the more bizarre or benign it looks the more dangerous it is. A yoma that looks like a cake decoration and shoots frosting and cupcakes at you can hurt you just as badly as a yoma covered in spikes and fangs."

"Are you serious?" Harry asked incredulously.

Mamoru didn't miss a beat, pointing to the man beside him. "No, he is. My name is Mamoru."

Sirius barked out a laugh. "Okay, I think we're going to get along."

"Is it too late to go back to Privet Drive?" Harry groaned. "If the monsters don't kill me, the comedy just might."

Mamoru grinned. Teasing the young was something he'd never gotten over. "As I was saying, yoma live off energy. Ambient energy will keep them alive, but to grow and thrive requires life energy. Normally, they get that by attacking and draining either an innocent victim or each other. The Negaverse is very much a survival of the fittest kind of place. The weak got eaten, and the strong served Queen Beryl because she was the strongest of all. Obey her, and you got a chance to sip from a pure and uncorrupted source. Even if you had to yield up the majority of the feast to the Queen, it was still enough to make the yoma suicidally eager."

"Jedite's methods are different, though. He chooses the ones that can show some self-control and rewards them by feeding them a portion from his ongoing harvest, making them stronger. If it goes to their head and they lose control, their rampage draws our attention and we take them down. As annoying as it is, we're helping him by serving as an object lesson. Each time we manage to find one of his operations, we run into yoma that are stronger and smarter than we've been used to dealing with. Lately, there are also more of them. We're not sure what Jedite's end-goal is, but the fact is that he may very well be winning."

"That's encouraging," Sirius sighed. "Look, I'm out of practice and I don't know how my spells stack up against your 'High Magic', but if Harry's going to be involved in this mess then I'll help out in any way I can. I was part of an order of wizards dedicated to fighting a Dark Lord back in the late '70s. We weren't winning against old Moldyshorts, but on the other hand I think he was a lot less concerned about secrecy than your boy Jedidiah."

"Jedite."

Sirius shook his head. "Jedidiah. Or Jedhead. Or even Jeddy the Wonder Biscuit. Always give your enemy an insulting nickname, I say, it helps you keep from fearing them. Respect a dangerous enemy, sure, but fear is just another weapon you give him."

Mamoru glanced over at him. "I guess you have a point there. …Potter-kun, are you alright?"

Harry was shaking in the back seat, holding in a laugh. Finally, he wheezed out "…Moldyshorts…"

"Come on, pup, didn't that nickname ever occur to you? You're thirteen, for Merlin's sake, you should have six nicknames for each teacher by now."

Harry took a deep breath. "Obviously you didn't have Hermione correcting you every five minutes."

Hedwig, her cage next to Harry on the back seat, spoke up for the first time in more than a day. "She means well, but they call her Bossy Boots for a reason."

"Who is Hermione?" Mamoru asked, pronouncing the unfamiliar name slowly to avoid mangling it.

"Hermione Granger is Harry's best friend, and the prospective candidate we were originally watching. We still weren't sure one way or the other when it was time to leave, so Crookshanks opted to stay with her and keep watching. Since Harry told her the truth about where he was going and why, she might be more willing to exhibit signs of unusual magic now." Hedwig reported.

"Potter-kun, I'm not sure that was wise. We don't tell people about the Negaverse because either they'd think we were crazy or it'd start a national panic. Most of the Sailor Scouts haven't even told their parents about the battles they fight at night."

Harry scowled. "They're my friends, I couldn't lie to them. They already know about our kind of magic, so hearing about one more isn't going to scare them. Merlin, the moment Hermione figures out that it's Crookshanks watching her she'll spend her summer interrogating him about High Magic and trying to learn it herself."

Mamoru sighed. "Well, it's done and it's …that guardian's problem now." He wasn't sure he could say 'Crookshanks' without mangling it.

"So, what exactly is the plan considering Harry? It sounds like you're fighting a guerilla war, and Hogwart's doesn't exactly train thirteen-year-olds for that." asked Sirius.

"Today, we will deal with the paperwork that moving to Japan requires, including getting Harry registered for school. You can both stay with me for now, but I assume you will want to look for an apartment of your own soon."

Sirius nodded. "Or a house."

"That….might prove very expensive, Black-san, Tokyo has the highest real-estate prices in the world."

"Well, back in the '70's my best friend and I did the monetary conversions just for a laugh. We had just come back from a summer trip here at the time, and I started kidding that I was going to empty my parent's vault and spend the rest of my life in Japan. James talked me out of that, but we calculated that my family had somewhere in the range of eight billion yen in cash alone."

Mamoru nearly ran off the road, luckily there were no other cars close by. "BILLION?" he gasped.

Sirius nodded. "Billion, in cash alone and not taking into account any inflation or investment income over the last fifteen years. I've since inherited the entire estate. I think a small house should be within my reach, don't you?"

Mamoru nodded slowly. "…Yes, I think you can afford a house."

"So, we'll get Harry in school and look for a house. What then?"

"As for the …magical side of things, I will be taking Harry as my student. After school and any extra lessons he needs, I'll teach him about how to call forth his power and how to use it. We won't be taking him on any hunting trips until we're sure he can defend himself."

"And when he's trained?"

"Then he'll go out with us. We never go out in less than groups of three, it's too risky otherwise." Mamoru didn't like the answer he was giving, but he didn't know how to make a shadow war against monster guerillas sound better.

"Then let me make my position clear, Chiba-san. Unless you can convince me that my abilities will be completely useless, I am going to be involved in this every step of the way." Sirius's eyes were like steel. "Harry is my godson and the only family I am ever likely to have. If he chooses to fight, he will not fight alone."

Mamoru nodded. "I understand completely, Black-san. Frankly, I think we will all welcome the help."

The rest of the trip was very quiet after that.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Sailor Moon. That, dear children, is called human trafficking, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies.

Shorter chapter this time. Yes, I know, boo, but the scenes ended where they did and making them run longer wouldn't necessarily have been an improvement.

* * *

The Hikawa Shrine was a fairly popular place in Azabu Juuban. Its caretaker, an energetic old man known only as Grandpa Hino, was …less popular, due to his habit of trying to talk girls into becoming shrine maidens. The shrine apprentice made up for him, though, as Yuuchirou was both handsome and only had eyes for the caretaker's granddaughter Rei. Rei was the resident shrine maiden and quite popular in her own right but even though many of the local girls looked up to her, her grandfather's antics kept them from going quite so far as to emulate her.

Thanks to Yuuichirou's broom and Rei's diligent cleansing, the grounds of the shrine were a peaceful, safe, and calm place whose serenity made it a welcome oasis for the residents of Juuban district. They would pass through the torii gate, climb the steps up the hill, and by the time they reached the second gate at the top their troubles would politely excuse themselves and go get a bowl of noodles somewhere else. Usually, the thus-unburdened people would walk quietly around the grounds, sit on a bench under a tree, pray at the shrine, or even grab a broom and give Yuuichirou a hand in keeping things tidy. When the visitor left, their troubles would be waiting for them at the bottom of the steps, but the break from them invariably made the burden feel lighter.

But there was one exception to the island of peace and serenity, one place in the Hikawa Shrine where chaos, confusion, and contention reigned. That place was Rei's room, and the reason (as always) was Usagi Tsukino. Usagi, Rei reflected, was lazy, shallow, gluttonous, and had a laugh like a braying donkey. If there were sweets (and thanks to Makoto there always were), Usagi would wheedle and whine to get the largest share. And then she'd eat them while reading Rei's manga, and get crumbs in the pages. She'd also forget to put them back where she found them, which meant that Rei had to re-organize her shelves at least once a month. Usagi had the handsomest man Rei had ever met for a boyfriend, and yet she still drooled over every cute guy she met, from Yuuichirou to Motoki at the arcade to the latest pop idols. Usagi also brought out the worst of Rei's temper, and far too many meetings degenerated into them bickering even when Rei spent time beforehand centering herself. Usagi Tsukino was the bane of Rei's existence….and her best friend. It was a girl thing, even Rei didn't understand it.

The whole gang was there tonight, and Makoto was unpacking a box of sweet bean cakes when Mamoru arrived. Usagi was torn between her boyfriend and her other true love, sweets. Eventually, she resolved the conflict by sitting next to Mamoru and cuddling up to him with a cake in each hand. Despite herself, Rei glared at her. Usagi was on the verge of saying something when Minako piped up. "So, I hear our new friends arrived yesterday. What are they like, Mamoru-kun?"

Mamoru cleared his throat and tried to ignore the chewing sounds from next to him. "I think that Black-san and Potter-kun will be good allies. They are not familiar with yoma, but both of them have fought evil wizards and monsters in their own country."

Minako rolled her eyes. "That's good, Mamoru-kun, but what are they _like_?"

"Black-san is protective of his godson, but not excessively so. He does not intend to shield Potter-kun from the fight, but he has expressed his intention to be part of it himself. As for Potter-kun, I think he is eager to join our struggle."

"Mamoru, you jerk! What? Are? They? LIKE?"

Mamoru smiled into the blonde girl's death-glare. "Black-san is a terrible joker, but very loyal. He recently escaped from a magic prison where he spent twelve years being tormented by monsters very like yoma, but they weren't able to break him. Apparently someone betrayed his best friends to an evil wizard, then framed him for their deaths. He released himself from the prison last year when he saw evidence that the betrayer was still alive and hiding near Potter-kun."

"An escaped prisoner, wrongfully accused? He sounds like the Count of Monte Cristo," Rei commented. She went to a private school, and her literature class had assigned the novel last year. It had taken her a month and a half to get through all thirteen hundred pages thanks to Usagi's constant complaining, but she had fallen in love with the story.

"He is, in a way." Mamoru had read it too, though in college. "He's very rich, though he inherited it from his family. He told me that they were …very unpleasant people who forgot to disinherit him before they died. He nearly took revenge on the former friend who betrayed him, but Potter-kun talked him out of it. Apparently his enemy is still alive somewhere, but he has decided to focus on protecting his godson instead."

"Well that's good," Minako chirped. She was the sort of girl who did that. "But what about Potter-kun, what kind of a boy is he?"

"He's thirteen, but he turns fourteen at the end of next month. He doesn't like to talk about himself much, but from his godfather and his guardian I found out that he was orphaned at a very young age by an evil wizard who murdered his parents and then tried to kill him. Somehow, the wizard's curse rebounded and reduced him to an evil spirit that is still lurking out there somewhere, trying to find a way to come back to life and get its revenge."

Rei scowled. "I hope it comes here, I'll send it straight to hell."

Mamoru nodded. "My feelings exactly. Anyway, Potter-kun been attending a magic school in Scotland for the past three years, where each year he'd have some wild and dangerous adventure with his two closest friends. His first year, he saved a magic immortality stone from a teacher possessed by the evil wizard. The second, he killed an enormous and ancient magic serpent to save his friend's younger sister. This year, he uncovered the truth about his godfather's alleged betrayal and used a time device to save him from having his soul eaten."

"Eaten?" Usagi asked, looking a little queasy. It ought to have been from how quickly she'd eaten three bean cakes, but Mamoru knew that when it came to sweets she had a cast-iron stomach.

"The monsters the wizards guard their prison with are very like yoma, but instead of draining life energy they feed on happy emotions and will eat your soul entirely if they can get to you. Apparently their highest Minister was bringing one to execute Black-san when Potter-kun rescued him."

Makoto's eyes hardened. "Wait, are you saying that they use demons to torture prisoners by devouring their ability to be happy?" Mamoru nodded and she slammed her hands down on the table angrily. "That's horrible! What kind of sick people are these wizards?" The table bounced (and a bean cake rolled off the plate to be nabbed by Usagi), but it didn't break this time. Makoto was easy to mistake as a future happy homemaker thanks to her love of cooking, but behind the apron was the heart of a warrior and a sense of justice that burned hot when it was offended.

Mamoru sighed. "They're the kind of people that hide themselves away from the ordinary world and try to use magic to solve everything. I think it's made them a bit questionable, and that may be why Black-san was so eager to bring Potter-kun to Japan."

The girls nodded, and Mamoru continued. "If what I understand is correct, Potter-kun is rather famous among wizards for defeating that evil wizard as a baby. Black-san tells me that they call him "The Living Boy" or something like that."

Minako giggled. "He's famous because he's alive? Aren't most boys?"

"After they have been struck by the unstoppable murder spell, no. Potter-kun is supposedly the only person who has ever survived one."

"I bet that's rough," Makoto mused, "To be famous for not dying with your mom and dad. I mean, think about it. Your parents die trying to protect you, and then somehow you survive and take out the bad guy just by being …whatever you were. That's great and all, but your parents are still dead. I bet it feels like people are saying they're glad his parents died every time someone uses that stupid title."

Minako sighed. "Yeah, I bet you're right. But Mamoru, you've told us all about his background. What is he _like_? Does he play sports? What kind of food does he like? Has he ever had a pet? What about friends? And did you get a picture of him?"

Mamoru shook his head. "I only met him this morning. His animal guardian is a snowy white owl named Hedwig. He likes talking about her, she was a gift for his eleventh birthday, and he considers her his first real friend. She became a guardian only a few weeks ago, before that she was simply a loyal and loving magical pet. Wizards use owls to carry their mail, apparently."

"Really?" Usagi grinned. "How come you never do that for me, Luna?"

The black cat sniffed. "If you ever _wrote_ any letters, I'd consider it."

"Hey, I do write letters!"

"Fan letters to pop idols don't count, Usagi, especially not badly-spelled ones that look like a grade schooler wrote them."

"Luna, you're mean. And I don't need to write letters anyway, because all my friends are right here!"

"Then you don't need a letter carrier, do you?"

Minako was relentless. "So, picture? Please?"

Mamoru sighed and retrieved the photograph from his coat pocket. Knowing full well that the girls would want one, he had asked Sirius for a picture and Sirius had dragooned Harry into posing with him. Setting the photograph down on the table, he slid it over to Minako who immediately snatched it up. "Oooh, he's CUTE!"

Rei leaned over to look. "Which one?"

"Both of them!" Minako chirped. "Well, Black-san is really old, but he's still kinda cute in a scruffy sort of way. But Potter-kun, wow!"

Makoto leaned in on her other side. "Yeah, I see what you mean. You know, he kinda looks…"

"Like my old boyfriend," everyone chorused, even Mamoru. No one had ever met or heard much about Makoto's old boyfriend, but apparently every guy she liked reminded her of him.

Rei peered closer. "Is he really short or is Black-san really tall?"

"Both. Black-san is about my height, and Potter-kun is close to yours."

"Well, I guess he'll fit in with the rest of us short people then," she mused. "When do we meet them?"

"Soon. They are staying at my apartment, but Black-san wants to find a place of their own and get settled before Potter-kun begins his training. They also need to get Potter-kun registered for school."

Rei nodded. "Speaking of which, Grandpa says that you can use the old acolyte hall behind the shrine for your training if you like. Just be careful, it's really old and way down Yuuichirou's list for repairs." Grandpa Hino was one of the few adults who know about their secret life, having been drawn into the battles between the Sailor Scouts and the Negaverse more than once. Whether Yuuichirou suspected or not was anyone's guess, but if he knew he was doing a marvelous job of keeping quiet about it.

"I didn't know you had an acolyte hall," Makoto commented.

"We do, but according to Grandpa we haven't had more than one acolyte at once since the Fifties. Yuuichirou says that the frame of the building is still sound, but he can't vouch for all of the roof or the floorboards."

"Please tell your grandfather thank you for us, and that we'll be careful."

The rest of the meeting consisted of a few minutes discussion and then Usagi, Minako, and Rei went out to patrol and follow a couple leads. Makoto pulled her homework out of her backpack and began to work on it. Ami, who had been quiet all evening began to do the same when Mamoru cleared his throat quietly. "Ami-kun, may I speak to you outside?"

She looked up, surprised. She had figured out years ago that Mamoru was never entirely comfortable being around a group of girls four years his junior even if he was dating one of them (perhaps _especially_ because he was dating one of them), and he rarely ever spoke to any of them one-on-one. Nodding, she put her bag down and followed him out of the house to a bench under the trees. She sat down, and he stayed standing, hands in his pockets. When he didn't speak for several long moments, she gently prompted "What did you wish to talk to me about, Mamoru-sempai?"

The young man sighed. "I'm sorry, this is just …awkward. When I was talking with Potter-kun's owl guardian earlier, she mentioned something else that I think you need to know."

"Oh?" Ami wasn't shy, really, but among the Sailor Scouts she seemed to have the most appreciation for quiet. When she had little to say, she said little and listened attentively.

Mamoru mulled over how best to say it. "Potter-kun is an orphan, as I said. What I didn't tell the others is that he was raised by his aunt and uncle, and that they were very cruel to him. Hedwig-san said that they did not strike him, but they did take every opportunity to bully, degrade, and humiliate him. He admitted to her that until he went to primary school he did not know that his name wasn't 'boy', or 'freak'. He was never told of magic until his acceptance letter to the magic school arrived, and he was told repeatedly that his parents died in a car accident while drunk. After he received his acceptance letter, his aunt and uncle 'generously' let him move into the smallest bedroom in their house from his previous accommodation, a cupboard under the stairs." Even though the sun was nearly set, Ami could see the anger in his face. "For as long as he lived under their roof he was forced to do as much of the household work as he was physically capable of doing, fed little more than the minimum to sustain life, and in general treated like a sub-human thing while their own son was treated as a pampered little god and allowed to become a horrible bully who made up for the lack of physical violence from his parents."

"That is terrible…" Ami said sadly.

"Yes, it is. I am not going to tell the others about this, Ami-kun, and I ask you not to tell them unless you feel it is absolutely necessary. Potter-kun will not want pity, not from you and not from them."

"Then why are you telling me this?"

"Because despite everything he has been through, Potter-kun is still a brave, honest, self-sacrificing boy who will risk his life without a thought for other people. He fought a thousand-year-old basilisk, a creature that can kill you if you merely look in its eyes, for his friend's little sister that he barely knew. He fought dozens of soul-eating demons to protect a man whom only hours before he had believed responsible for his parents' death. And it is very likely that he will do the same for you."

"For me?" Ami asked in confusion. "Why do you specify me?"

Mamoru sighed. "This is the awkward part. When Potter-kun was asked to come, the deciding factor for him seemed to be you."

The blue-haired girl frowned a little. "I don't understand, Mamoru-sempai. Potter-kun and I have never met."

"Yes, but he has been told that he is the Prince of Mercury, and that there is a Princess of Mercury. The logical inference is that the two of you were related and quite possibly siblings."

Her brow furrowed as she carefully examined her memories. "I remember little from that life, almost nothing beyond the fall of the Moon Kingdom. Could I have had a brother?"

He shrugged. "Luna and Artemis don't remember either, so your guess is as good as mine. He could have been a cousin or someone who was granted the title for another reason. For all we really know, he could have been your husband." Ami turned pale at the thought, and Mamoru held up his hands. "I don't think that's very likely, though, and I don't think Potter-kun is thinking about that either."

Ami let out a sigh of relief. The boy in the picture had looked both kind and potentially handsome, but the idea of having a destined romantic bond with someone the way Usagi and Mamoru did – and with someone younger than her – was …not what she wanted right now. "What Hedwig-san told me and that I am trying to tell you," Mamoru continued, "is that Potter-kun wants most of all to have family, to be connected with people who love him or are at least kind to him. He came halfway around the world to fight monsters, in the hope of finding a sister."

Ami clenched her hands in her lap as she pondered this. Could she be a sister to a complete stranger? What did she know about being a sister? She was an only child, and her own home life was …uncomfortable. Her parents were divorced, and while her artist father sent her a painting every now and then he couldn't come and see her very often. Her mother was a doctor, and worked very hard. Most of Ami's communication with her mother came through messages on the white board near the kitchen door. They were always signed with love, but Ami couldn't help but wonder how much that really meant. On those occasions when her mother was home at dinner time, they talked mainly of medicine or of Ami's studies. Ami greatly respected and looked up to her mother, but they weren't close. To be honest, the first person Ami had ever really been close to was Usagi, the bumbling ditzy girl who couldn't understand Ami's dedication to good grades but insisted on being her friend anyway. She would always be grateful for that.

"It …could be good to have a brother." She finally said quietly. "But this will be very strange for both of us, I think."

Mamoru nodded. "Ami-kun, all we are asking is that you get to know him. If you feel a connection, we will rejoice for long-lost siblings reunited. If not, then be honest with him about it. I think he will understand."

Ami stood up. "I look forward to meeting him, Mamoru-sempai. You are planning to introduce him to me first, aren't you?"

"I had considered that, yes. What do you think?"

She pondered. "Yes, it might be better if he has at least one prior acquaintance in the room when he meets the others."

Mamoru smirked a little. "I think you are right about that, Ami-kun. I will try to arrange for you to meet him soon, then." He hesitated and smirked a little more. "I think Potter-kun is going to find Japan a very interesting adjustment…"


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts. Not any more, at least. I was once, but I retired to Patagonia where I lived like a king until the money suddenly ran out. Or maybe I dreamed it all. In any case, I cannot prove that I was ever the Dread Pirate Roberts, which is probably for the best considering modern attitudes toward piracy. I also don't own Harry Potter or Sailor Moon, but I would like to point out that Harry Potter, Sailor Moon, and Batman have never been seen together in the same room with me. They never call, they never write...

Apparently this is another short chapter. The good news is that mayhem is about to ensue, at least it will if I can get Chapter 6 to upload properly... In the mean time, enjoy!

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Harry was indeed finding Japan a very interesting adjustment. Being able to understand the speech all around him but not able to read 90% of the signs was frustrating. Most people were willing to answer a politely-worded question about the things he couldn't puzzle out, and he received many compliments on his flawless Nihongo. His inability to read didn't faze most people, and he was quickly coming to the conclusion that foreigners in Japan were universally considered weird, but excusably so.

After three days of searching, Sirius had found a house and expedited the process of buying it by actually paying the asked price. The real deal-maker, however, had been when Sirius introduced Harry to the elderly couple who were selling the house to move in with their recently-widowed daughter. Harry's polite and earnest demeanor had impressed Mr. and Mrs. Kobayashi more than Sirius's flamboyant friendliness, and a morning spent helping Mrs. Kobayashi tend the garden had satisfied her that her beloved flower beds would be properly cared for.

In the meantime, Harry was getting a crash course in the Japanese school system, or more specifically how a Hogwarts education didn't measure up to it. Age-wise he was considered to be in Junior High Grade 2, but in the entrance exams the prefectural office requested that he take he scored …considerably lower. Hogwarts didn't have courses in mathematics, geography, literature, or world history, and as such he was far behind in those subjects. The administrators strongly recommended that Harry sit out the two weeks before the end of the spring term and spend his summer vacation with tutors getting caught up. At the end of summer, they would re-test him and determine if he was ready to join his peers in Grade 2.

As for his training with Mamoru, Harry hadn't begun it yet. Mamoru had asked to put it off while Harry and Sirius got settled, with the end of the spring term approaching he had several papers due and he needed to give them his full attention. Sirius frowned but let it pass. Instead, they focused on helping the Kobayashis move and getting set up in their new house. It was an older house in the back streets of Azabu Juuban, in the kind of neighborhood where you would still see elderly ladies wearing kimonos in the daytime. The tall handsome gaijin and his very polite nephew (they'd decided that nephew was easier to explain than godson) were an instant hit with the local housewives. The first couple days after they moved in saw one neighbor after another dropping in to introduce themselves. The following day, those same neighbors would come back with gifts of food. Apparently two bachelor men (even or especially if one was underage) could not be trusted to feed themselves properly.

Harry and Sirius did their best to take it in stride. Sirius enjoyed the attention, and Harry enjoyed the food. He didn't mind cooking, but he'd learned fairly quickly that Sirius didn't know one end of a frying pan from the other and didn't have the patience to learn. Harry, on the other hand, had been cooking since he was tall enough to stand on a stool and reach the stove. He mostly knew British cuisine (and mostly the unhealthiest parts of it), but he could cook fairly well and could appreciate the time and skill that went into the artistically-arranged plates of food the neighbor women would drop off for them. The foods were often strange and indescribable to his untutored palate, but for the most part they were delicious and an adventure to try and guess what they were eating. Each morning, Harry would wash and return each dish to its owner with sincere thanks, a few questions, and a flower selected from the garden inherited from Mrs. Kobayashi.

That venerable lady had caught Harry at it one morning, and after listening to his explanation had given her blessing. After all, the garden was his now and the blossoms wouldn't last forever. She gave him a little advice on tending to some of the more exotic flowers, but otherwise contented herself with a cup of tea and a quiet visit with the flower beds she had tended for so long. Harry simply liked having someone around who could give advice on tending the gardens without flinging insults at him every time he turned around. Professor Sprout HAD been much nicer than Aunt Petunia, but gardening and Herbology still felt like separate worlds – perhaps because mundane flowers and shrubs weren't likely to try and kill him if he was inattentive.

The two had made a large shopping foray as well, partly to finally stock Harry's wardrobe and partly to buy furniture. Bunking at Mamoru's house they had discovered that Harry and futons did not get along. Simply put, sleeping on the floor made him dream of being back in his cupboard on Privet Drive. Sirius had more or less the same experience with dreams of Azkaban, so despite the cost they invested in four-poster beds for the both of them. They both had enough fond memories of Gryffindor Tower for bed curtains to feel comforting despite the summer heat. As for clothes shopping, Sirius had been merciful and let Harry pick out his own things rather than subject him to Torture By Shopgirl again. Harry now had a complete and simple array of t-shirts and pants that fit him and Sirius had done him the extra favor of NOT offering any fashion advice. When queried about this sudden lack of involvement, the Marauder had answered simply that since Harry had his Paris outfits for those times he had to look sharp, he might as well dress for comfort the rest of the time. Besides, he'd be wearing school uniforms for most of each day and there was no point in buying those until they knew exactly where he'd be attending school.

Harry was working in the garden when a car parked outside the gate. "Good evening, Harry-kun!" Mamoru called cheerfully as he peered over the fence. "The azaleas are blooming beautifully."

"Thank you, I am trying not to undo Mrs. Kobayashi's hard work. Please, come in." Harry stripped off his gloves and tilted back his straw hat. He felt a bit silly wearing it, but the summer sun made it a necessity. "How are your term papers going?"

Mamoru opened the gate and stepped inside. "Well enough that I can take an evening off. Where is Sirius-san this evening?"

"He's inside, practicing his magic. Would you like me to get him? It's not precisely safe to go in there right now." Sirius was working on refreshing his memory, and was trying everything from Switching to Summoning in there. Harry had even had to stop the coffee table from escaping out the front door once.

Mamoru looked around. "Are you sure it's wise to talk about it openly? The neighbors might hear."

"Not to worry," Harry grinned. "We already told the neighbors all about it."

"What?!"

"Yes, we told them about how Sirius landed the part of the mischievous wizard on a children's show that's being pitched to the networks. Naturally, he has to practice at home."

Mamoru thought about that for a few moments. "He really would be perfect for that kind of a show, wouldn't he…"

Harry nodded. "We thought so. He's already shown off a few of his 'tricks' for the neighbors, if the show doesn't pan out then he might get hired for grandchildren's birthday parties."

"You and Sirius-san are out to prank the whole world, aren't you?" Mamoru said as he sat down on the front porch.

"Well, yes and no. I left a jar of barley tea on the porch, have some if you like." Harry stooped and began weeding the flower bed again. "Sirius has been telling me stories about the Marauders and the jokes they used to play on the school back in their days. He said that the pranks that had the greatest effect were the ones that used the target's expectations against them. If you show people something they expect to see, then they won't see what you really did until it's far too late. We're not really trying to play a joke on our neighbors, but we are giving everyone a convenient excuse to ignore the things we do. We're hiding our strangeness by _not_ hiding our strangeness."

"That's really very clever," Mamoru admitted. "I don't think it would work for Japanese people, but everyone 'knows' that foreigners are crazy."

Harry grinned and nodded. "My Uncle Vernon felt the same way. Though really, he hated everyone who wasn't exactly like himself, foreign or English."

"He sounds like a really fun person."

"Oh, he was. He'd turn the most fascinating colors every time he read in the newspaper about people doing things he didn't approve of, which was pretty much every day."

Mamoru laughed. "No wonder you were glad to come to Japan. Speaking of which, how is the search for a tutor going?"

Harry stabbed at a weed with a tool and sighed. "Not very well... Sirius and I have been visiting the local 'cram schools', and so far they've all felt more like prison camps than anything else."

"Cram schools?" Mamoru asked, aghast. "Harry-kun, those are for helping you with the high school or college entrance exams, not for getting you caught up to junior high. Who told you to try a cram school?"

"Someone at the prefectural office, they gave us a list that we've been working our way down."

"Throw that list in the trash, Harry-kun. I'm not saying those schools are useless, but they really aren't a good idea for someone who is adjusting to a whole new country."

Harry looked relieved. "What would you suggest, then?"

Mamoru smiled. "A personal tutor, someone who can take the time to explain things to you until you understand them. I know just the person, in fact, that's why I came over."

"Fantastic, who is it?"

"A friend of mine. Do you have any problem with being taught by a girl?"

Harry shook his head. "I've had a girl nagging me about my homework every day for the last three years. I was starting to miss it," he replied with a grin.

"Perfect. Go grab Sirius-san and I'll take you to meet her."

Fifteen minutes later, they were parked in front of a high-rise apartment building. At the front door, Mamoru had a brief word with the intercom before they were buzzed inside. The lobby was tastefully-decorated, and the elevator they boarded had oak paneling. "Is this tutor from an important family?" Sirius asked as he looked around.

Harry glared at him for the rude question, but Mamoru answered anyway. "Her mother is a doctor, and a very good one from what I have heard. However, I do not believe she would categorize herself as 'important'. She is a high school student of my acquaintance with a strong academic record and is willing to help you if she can."

Sirius nodded and ignored Harry's glare. "Do you hang out with a lot of high school girls, Chiba-san?"

Mamoru sighed. "Some times it feels like they're the only kind of girls I know."

They stepped out on the seventeenth floor, and were soon standing before a door. Mamoru rang the bell, and the door opened to reveal a girl an inch or two taller than Harry. "Welcome, Mamoru-sempai, won't you and your friends please come in?" she asked as she stepped back, bowing.

Mamoru stepped into the entryway of the apartment, Harry and Sirius following behind him. "Harry, Sirius, please allow me to introduce Ami Mizuno. Ami-kun, these are Harry Potter and Sirius Black."

Ami bowed again, hands clasped modestly before her. She was a pretty girl in an elfin sort of way, and though she was obviously Japanese her hair and eyes were both bright blue. She wore a simple but attractive blouse and skirt, white socks, and house slippers. A pair of large round glasses framed her wide eyes perfectly, and her hair fell in a feminine bob that curled just below her ears. "I am very pleased to meet you both," she said in a quietly pleasant voice. "Would you like to come and have some tea?"

Taking off their shoes, the two men and Harry followed her into the living room, where they knelt around a low table. A teapot was already steaming on the table, and a plate of large frosted rice crackers sat next to it. Sirius was a bit awkward getting down onto his knees, but Harry was quickly getting the hang of it thanks to youth and agility plus the social calls he had been making around the neighborhood. Ami poured the tea quietly, and Mamoru murmured a quiet instruction in Sirius's ear. Nodding, Sirius held his tongue and sipped at his tea as the others did the same.

The quiet of the moment gave Ami a chance to look at Harry. He was small for a Westerner, with that always-hungry look that boys often had. She nodded and smiled when she saw his eyes reluctantly turn to the plate of rice crackers, and he took one silently. He did his best to eat it quietly, not gobble it down like most boys (and Usagi) would. His expression was guarded, but not so guarded that she couldn't read a few things in it. Ami was the thinker in her group of friends, the one who stood in the back and watched everything and then used what she learned to turn the tables. There was a similar alertness in Harry's gaze, though it was more wary than watchful. His body language had a certain tension in it even in her living room surrounded by friends. She wasn't sure if he was even aware of it, but he was keeping himself ready for things to go badly in some way.

Mamoru-sempai's words came back to her. _'He came halfway around the world to fight monsters, in the hope of finding a sister.'_ Of course. Harry was nervous, afraid of being rejected. She assumed that Mamoru-sempai had told him that she was Sailor Mercury, so naturally he would be on edge as he waited to find out if he had come looking for family in vain. Or if Mamoru-sempai hadn't told him, then he could just as easily be nervous because he was meeting a girl who could help or hinder him in fitting into Japanese schools. Maybe she was over-thinking this. Whatever the reason, he was nervous and wary but she couldn't sense any resentment or anger about him. Thank goodness…

Their eyes met, and Ami's widened. Oh my… His eyes were bright green and seemed to pierce through the battered wire-frame glasses. Ami stared back at him and for several long moments the world seemed to fall away and leave them alone together. Ami Understood. Harry was alone, had always been alone. Even when he had relatives, even when he had pets and parental figures, even when he had schoolmates and friends, Harry had always felt alone inside. Ami understood that feeling well. Before Usagi had come along and brought other friends with her, Ami had been very alone. Her mother had always been distant, and after her father had left she had thrown herself into her studies both to please her mother and to dull the pain. Scholastic success hadn't cured the loneliness though; in fact it had made it worse. Her classmates were intimidated, both by her natural intelligence and her work ethic. Being around her made them feel guilty for not taking their own studies as seriously, and guilt quickly turned to resentment. Direct bullying had been rare, thankfully, but Ami understood all too well what it was to be alone.

Ami stared at Harry, and Harry stared back. Sirius watched them nervously. He could tell that they were taking each other's measure, but did they have to do it so quietly? Even though Mamoru hadn't told them who exactly this girl was, Sirius figured it was pretty obvious that this was Harry's reincarnatey (and he refused to stop using that word) sister. He hoped that she would agree to the connection, his nose for people was rarely wrong (_Peter_, his guilty conscience coughed) and there was something about her that he liked.

Harry was confused. This girl was looking at him so intently, as if she were memorizing his face. She wasn't gawping at his scar, thank goodness, nor had she made a comment about his eyes. If anything, it was like she was trying to see _through_ him. It was like being stared down by Dumbledore, only with less twinkling and more compassion. Compassion? Where had that thought come from? Was he thinking that Dumbledore wasn't compassionate? Argh! Why couldn't he look away from her? She was really pretty, but she was also older than him and way out of his league and why was he even thinking about that? Maybe the Twins were right – girls were insane, and they wouldn't rest til they made you insane too.

But why was she staring at him? Who was this girl anyway? This couldn't just be about tutoring; she would have spoken to him about _something_ by now. Harry's confidence was quickly eroding as he tried to work out what was going on. This girl was smart or Mamoru wouldn't have introduced her as a tutor. From the looks of her apartment, her parents were doing pretty well for themselves, so she probably wasn't doing this for the money. She didn't look like a spoiled princess, the way some of the Slytherin girls did….wait. Princess. That was it, she was one of the Moon Kingdom princesses. Which one?

Hedwig's voice came back to him in memory. _'A very kind, gentle soul.'_

_'Kind of a brain, supposedly. Like Bossy Boots but nicer about it.'_ Crookshanks' snarky voice chimed in.

Unable to break eye contact, Harry swallowed. "…..Are you …..Sailor Mercury?" Merlin, he'd actually said it.

Ami smiled and nodded. "I am. …Are you my brother?"

Oh Merlin… Harry broke eye contact and looked down as his hands, clenched into fists in his lap. Merlin, Merlin, _Merlin_… What was he thinking, coming here and thinking he could be connected to a complete stranger? Why was he trying to barge into her life? What kind of a _freak_ would do something like this? A cold chill settled into his heart. He _was_ a freak. A needy, grasping, over-reaching little freak. Uncle Vernon was right.

Seeing Harry suddenly shaking with fear and self-loathing, Sirius opened his mouth but Mamoru grabbed his arm tightly and shook his head. Angry, Sirius was about to growl at him when a movement drew his attention. Ami had gotten up and silently padded around the table in her stockinged feet. Kneeling next to Harry, she put her arms around the younger teen and whispered in his ear. Harry was startled by the feel of her breath, but even more by her words. "I'm here, brother. You're not alone anymore…"

Something snapped inside of Harry. Male pride and ten years of having every outward weakness beaten out of him went out the window as he threw his arms around the blue-haired girl and sobbed into her shoulder. Ami held him close and let her fingernails gently scratch through his hair. Perhaps it was strange, but this felt right. Like finding a small, dusty room in your house that you'd never seen before despite living there for years, there was a faint ghost of a memory in the back of her mind and it simply said 'you have a brother'. As Harry cried, she held him close and was glad she had listened to it.

The front door of the apartment opened, and a dark-haired woman in a smart, fashionable coat stepped inside. "I'm home," she called, likely out of habit. "Ami-chan, are you here?" She stopped short in the doorway, staring in shock at the scene in front of her.

Mamoru was on his feet in an instant, bowing. "Doctor Mizuno, I apologize for our intrusion."

She stared up at him with irritation. "Chiba-san, I realize that serving as chaperone to my daughter's study group may have been wearing on your nerves, but I would not have thought that your sense would be affected too. Would you please explain why there are two strangers in my apartment, _one of whom appears to be necking with my daughter?_"

Mamoru winced. "That …is not what it appears to be, Mizuno-sensei. The young man is a transfer student from England that I have introduced to Ami-kun in the hope that she would tutor him. This gentleman," He could feel Sirius standing up next to him. "Is his legal guardian…"

"Sirius Black," she hissed, and then punched him.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I didn't write the original stories this story is based off of. I also didn't write a lot of other stories, both on here and out in the published realm. Some of them, I'm very glad I didn't write. Others, I'm deeply jealous. Most of all, I didn't write any of Bobmin356s' disclaimers, which is good because those things are EXPENSIVE to stage! (Seriously, though, go read their stories if you haven't already, they're awesome)

Special props to Zaidee this chapter, who shall know why presently.

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Sirius Black had twelve inches of height and at least fifty pounds over Dr. Mizuno, but that didn't stop her from dropping him like a sack of wet cement. Despite the height difference her fist caught him in the mouth and sent him rocking back. Automatically his foot went back to try and balance him, but his shin met the edge of the table and stopped. His upper body didn't stop, however, and so Sirius Black fell onto the table with a loud crash, shattering the teapot beneath him and cracking the table in half. Ami and Harry were shocked out of their reverie and instinctively tried to jump away from the descending body. Unfortunately, Ami cracked her head on the bookcase behind her and Harry landed on top of her with his face on her chest. As Mamoru tried desperately to find something, _anything_ to say, Dr. Mizuno gave him the full force of an angry glare that had him stepping back away from her. His foot landed in a puddle of spilled tea, though, and it slipped out from under him on the smooth bamboo flooring. Mamoru landed awkwardly, the corner of the broken table catching him in the side and his head bouncing off the wood laminate floor. In short, less than ten seconds after entering the room Dr. Mizuno was the only uninjured, fully-conscious person in it.

The first real awareness Harry had of Dr. Mizuno's presence was a well-manicured hand gripping his ear and _yanking_. "Get up, boy," her stern voice commanded. Harry carefully pushed himself away from Ami and got onto his feet. He was confused and angry (those nails _hurt_), but one glance at her face was enough to tell him that this woman was Not Someone To Be Messed With. Still holding his ear, she stared at him for several seconds. "Is your name Potter?"

"What?" he asked.

"_Is your name Potter?_" she barked.

"Y-yes… Harry Potter. How…?"

He hissed with pain as she dug her nails into his earlobe. "Listen and understand, Harry Potter, this is your only warning. Touch my daughter again, and I will kill you. I am not joking, nor am I exaggerating. I am a doctor. Every week, I bring baby boys into the world. _I can take you out of it._ Do you understand?" Harry nodded slowly, and she finally let go. "Good. Go sit in the corner, there. If you do anything besides breathe, I will kill you."

As Harry scrambled out of her way, Dr. Mizuno knelt down next to her daughter and examined her carefully. "Ami-chan… Can you hear me, Ami?" Ami's eyes opened blearily, and her mother slowly moved a fingertip in front of her face to check her focus. "How do you feel?"

"Mother? …You're home early."

"My last patient was in a hurry to be born, it was all over in ten minutes." Her voice was quieter now, professional. "I don't think you have a concussion, but you knocked your head quite firmly. Ami-chan, who is that boy?"

Concussion or not, Ami was in no condition to say anything but the truth. "I think he's my brother…"

"Ami-chan, if you had a brother I am certain I would know about it. Why was he draped all over you?" Dr. Mizuno was a good doctor and arguably a good person. Somewhere along the way, though, she had developed a ruthless streak that saw nothing wrong with using the side-effects of a head injury or a medically-administered sedative to get the truth out of people.

"He was crying, Mother. He didn't do anything wrong, _I_ hugged _him_. He's been alone for so long…" Ami was slowly coming back into focus, and her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment.

"Ami-chan, your kind heart is going to get you in so much misery…" Dr. Mizuno sighed. Taking off her coat, she folded it and placed it under her daughter's head. "You just lie there for now, while I tend to the rest of these idiots." Ami nodded slowly, and she stood up again.

Mamoru was sitting up and rubbing the back of his head when Dr. Mizuno stepped behind him and took over the examination. "Hmm. No brain damage for you, at least nothing new." Without ceremony, she pulled up his shirt to examine his side. "You're going to feel that for a few days, but thankfully it's just some deep bruising rather than a cracked rib. My advice is to go home, put some ice on it, and think about the appropriateness of your actions while I decide if I can still trust you with my daughter's safety." He nodded slowly, and she moved away so he could get up.

Sirius was still lying on the broken remains of the coffee table and the shards of the teapot. He was fairly certain he was bleeding at least a little and he had soggy rice crackers stuck to his back, but he only had eyes for the dark-haired woman scowling down at him. Finally, the five-yen-piece dropped. "…Saeko? Saeko Misahara?"

"It's Mizuno now, Dr. Mizuno. And what are you staring at?"

In spite of the discomfort of the situation and the anger in her eyes (or perhaps because of them), Sirius grinned goofily. "Bloody hell, woman. You're even more beautiful than I remember."

Dr. Mizuno's cheeks flushed and she looked away. "…Idiot."

Harry wanted to ask what was going on, but he was still taking Dr. Mizuno's promise to kill him very seriously. Sirius carefully extricated himself from the table and got to his feet. Pulling up his shirt, he turned around. "So, how bad is it? You'll want us out of your way before your husband comes home, I'm sure."

"I'm divorced," she said simply as she leaned over and picked bits of broken pottery out of Sirius's back. "Hmm, this looks like just a few surface cuts, but I'd better clean and dress them or they'll scar."

"Really? That's too bad, about the divorce I mean." Sirius said cheerfully. "Whatever the guy did, he was an idiot for letting you go..ow! Hey!" Dr. Mizuno was dragging him by his ear, in much the same way she had Harry earlier. "Bloody hell, woman, do you file those things for sharpness?"

"Shut up and hold still," she ordered as she dragged him into the kitchen and sat him down on a chair. Opening a cupboard, she got out her first aid kit and began applying peroxide to his cuts. "I said hold still!" Sirius hissed, but gritted his teeth and bore it. "So, what brings you back to Japan? Taking James's kid on a trip to relive the glory days and show him how to pick up Japanese girls?"

"It's not like that, Saeko….ow! Bloody HELL, woman!" Dr. Mizuno had dug her nails into his skin again.

"That is Dr. Mizuno to you. You lost any right to use my name years ago, seeing as I don't know yours."

Sirius twisted his head around to gape at her. "You know my name, it's Sirius Black."

"Liar."

"My name is and always has been Sirius Orion Black. Though there was this one guy named Stubby Boardman who used to look a lot like me…MERLIN'S GRAVE, WOMAN! STOP THAT!"

Dr. Mizuno's eyes were cold. "According to the British Census of 1976, 1980, and 1984, there is no such person as Sirius Black. No address, no telephone number, no school records, and not so much as a single tax form. Sirius Black does not exist, so who are you?"

The light dawned for Sirius. "Well of course there wouldn't be any Muggle records, I grew up in the Wiz… Err…"

"Muggle records? The Wiz…? Is that supposed to be some kind of explanation?"

Sirius Black had once been known as a good man in a fight. He had passed the combat portion of his Auror training with flying colors, and had even earned the high praise of "Well, maybe he won't die in his first week" from his trainer, Master Auror Alastor Moody. During the height of the guerilla war with Voldemort and the Death Eaters, Sirius Black had quickly earned a reputation as a fighter who kept both his wits and his wit about him. But that had been before Azkaban, and it had also not involved an angry woman applying peroxide and sharp fingernails to his ribs. As such, Sirius was not at his best, judgment-wise. Pressed to give some explanation for things he couldn't sanely explain, Sirius decided to start with the insane explanation. He leaned forward, and in a moment the tall, lanky man was replaced by an enormous black dog.

Dr. Mizuno fainted.

When she regained her senses some time later she was laying on the couch, her head on a pillow and her daughter peering down at her. "How do you feel, Mother?"

She rubbed her forehead. "Like I haven't been dreaming, but I wish I were. Did I see a man turn into a dog?"

Ami smiled. "Yes, Mother, you did. In fact, he turned back into a man after you fainted and helped Chiba-san get you onto the couch." She gestured to the large dog lying next to the couch, wagging its tail slowly.

"…and the boy?"

"Harry-kun is still sitting in the corner, convinced that if he moves you'll kill him."

"…good. And Chiba-san?"

"He left, as you instructed."

Dr. Mizuno sat up with her daughter's nervous assistance. "Sirius, is that really you?" The dog looked up and nodded. "Turn back, please; I'm not done yelling at you." A moment later there was a dark-haired man sitting awkwardly on the floor. "So, are you a man that turns into a dog, or a dog that turns into a man?"

Sirius grinned. "I'm a man that turns into a dog, though James's wife would have argued with you on that."

She rubbed her forehead again. "Would have?"

He sighed. "James and his wife died in 1981. Harry was only a year old."

"I am sorry… He seemed like a good person."

"He was the best. And Lily was even better."

They lapsed into silence for a few moments, and Ami glanced over at Harry. He had the same expression she supposed she had, a mix of curiosity and frustration at not being part of the discussion. Finally, she stood up. "Would you like some tea, Mother?" At her mother's nod, she looked down at Sirius. "Tea, Black-san?"

His grin returned. "Thank you."

Turning, Ami walked over to Harry and grabbed his hand to help him up. "I think we'd better give them a minute alone," she said, ignoring the glare from her mother and the knowing grin from Sirius. Both teenagers retreated to the kitchen, where they could eavesdrop with less awkwardness.

Back in the living room, Dr. Mizuno stared down at Sirius. "So….you are a dog-man?"

Sirius nodded, then shrugged. "Actually, I am a wizard," he said and produced his wand. A couple flicks and a shower of flower petals appeared in the air. "Turning into a dog was something I learned how to do as a teenager. Not everyone can do it, but James could turn into a great big stag and one of my former teachers can turn into a cat."

"And being a …wizard means that you don't have official records?" Dr. Mizuno was usually pretty quick in the uptake, but having her notions of reality credibly challenged was slowing her down.

"Well, being a pureblood wizard does. The society of magical people, witches and wizards, is hidden from what we call the 'muggle' or non-magical society. There are strict punishments for anyone who tells a non-magical person that magic exists, or does magic where ordinary people can see. Many witches and wizards don't take part in muggle society at all, and so they never have things like driving licenses, tax forms, or mailing addresses. My family was particularly proud, and the last time the Blacks did any business with muggles was in 1732, when we bought our London townhouse."

She frowned. "But don't you pay taxes on it?"

"Not to the muggle government," he replied. "The house is enchanted so that only magical people can find it, and if tax collectors can't find a house how can they tax it? There is a magical government, though, and my family does pay taxes to them. I'm sorry that you couldn't find me, but there were no records for you to find." He hesitated. "Why _were_ you trying to find me?"

Her face darkened. "I…wanted to write to you," she lied. "That week I spent with you…and James, it was a happy time…"

Risking his life, Sirius reached up to gently brush her cheek with his fingers. "Saeko... That week was a wonderful time and I'll never regret it. But that was nearly seventeen years ago. You moved on, you got married and started a family… Why look for me while you had all that?"

She pulled away from his hand. "Why did you leave without giving me any way to contact you?" she asked, regaining some of her anger.

Sirius sighed and looked down. "Because… your father asked me to."

"My father?!" she asked, half-growling and half-squealing.

"Remember that night you invited James and I over for dinner? While you were helping your mother with the dishes, your father took me for a walk around the neighborhood. He wanted to explain a few things."

"Such as?" This time, she was definitely scowling.

He sighed. "He explained that your dream was to become a doctor, and to do that you needed to focus fully on school. He said that medicine school…"

"Medical school," she corrected automatically.

"Thanks. He said that medical school was very hard to get into even for boys. For a girl to get in and be taken seriously, he said you needed to get such good marks on your entrance exam that no one could question whether you belonged there. And he said that if you had an English boyfriend distracting you, you'd never pass the exams."

"That meddling old _bastard_…" Saeko growled. "He told me that he'd given you _my_ address! When you didn't write, I was heartbroken for weeks!"

Sirius shook his head. "He didn't give me anything, he just made me promise to walk away and let you move on with your life."

"If he wasn't already dead I would _kill_ that man!" she seethed. "He kept telling me that if you cared, you would write. And when I realized that you had left no way for me to write _you_, he just said it was further proof!"

He shrugged. "I'm sorry he did that, but he was just looking out for his little girl. You were trying to become a doctor, and I would have gotten in the way. I'm good at that, I was always underfoot whenever James went home to see his family, and even after James married his girlfriend I was always hanging around. Lily used to get so mad…" he said with a grin. "You were better off without me. Look at you; you're a wealthy doctor and a great mother."

She gave him a glare that should have melted steel. "I failed the entrance examinations that year. Damn it, Sirius, _I needed you_!"

"Why?"

"_Because I was pregnant with Ami!_" she yelled.

The whole apartment fell silent. In the kitchen, both Ami and Harry had turned pale, staring at each other in shock.

Sirius blinked a few times. "But…what about your husband?"

Saeko clenched her fists. "I didn't meet Shuichi until Ami was nearly two."

Ami swallowed and started counting, turning more pale as the numbers began to add up.

"Wait, what are you saying?" Sirius asked in confusion.

Growling, she slapped him. "You idiot! _I'm saying that Ami is your daughter, you fur-brained British cur!_ I was desperately trying to find the father of my child, and you VANISHED!"

Harry snapped into motion as Ami wobbled on her feet, threatening to emulate her mother and faint. Luckily, he was able to get to her in time and guide her down onto a kitchen chair. Out in the living room Sirius looked, amazingly enough, like he'd been slapped. With a mackerel. "D…daughter? I have a daughter?" Growling, she pulled back to slap him again, only to find him practically tackling her with a hug. "I have a daughter!"

Pinned against his chest, Saeko struggled. "Get off of me, you idiot!"

After a few moments, Sirius let go. "Sorry about that, it's just…I never thought I'd be able to be a father."

"You're not a father," she said, scowling.

"What?"

"She is your daughter, you are half-responsible for her presence in the world, but you are not her father. Her father is Shuichi Mizuno, the man who chose to adopt her and spent each day taking care of her while her mother struggled to fight her way through medical school. He was there for her, and even now that he and I are parted he still tries to be there for her. He is her father, not you."

Sirius sagged. "I…can see why you both would feel that way. But Saeko, I never had a _chance_ to be there for her. You had no way of telling me, and I had no way of knowing. I can't change the past; believe me I wish I could… But if she is my daughter, can't you let me be here for her _now_?"

Saeko stared at him for a long moment, and then sighed. "If she wants anything to do with you, then I won't get in the way. But if you hurt her, I will kill you. I may not be a good mother, but I will protect my little girl and all the wizardry in the world will not save you from a painful, humiliating death."

Sirius smiled. "I understand. Thank you, Saeko."

She scowled at him again. "Don't thank me, if it were up to me I'd hit you over the head and throw you in the harbor. And don't think that I'm going to let you take her back to England with you, she is staying in Japan and going to a real university."

"I'm not going back to England, Harry and I live here now. We bought a house last week." He grinned. "I'm a registered foreign resident."

"Then I suppose she will have time to get to know you if she wants. And as for the boy…" she said, scowling.

"Harry? What about him?"

"I don't care if he IS James's son, I don't want him putting his paws on Ami. She has a brilliant future ahead of her, and I don't want what happened to me to happen to her. I am not going to forbid her to date, but she knows that I will be very disappointed if her grades slip because of boys. The medical profession is not as unwelcoming to women as it used to be, but university exams have not gotten easier."

Sirius chuckled. "Harry isn't going to be a problem. He grew up under some pretty tough circumstances, but somehow he came out of it with a heart of gold and absolutely no clue about girls. And if Ami is anything like you were at that age, she can take care of herself."

Saeko glared at him. "How _I_ was at that age is what got us into this mess."

"I'd like to think I had some part in it. Besides, I really don't think you regret having Ami."

She sighed. "No, I don't."

Sirius carefully got to his feet. "Do you mind if I take Ami and Harry out for ice cream or something? I imagine she's got a lot of questions she wants to ask right now, and I still need to talk to her about tutoring Harry over summer vacation."

"…Fine."


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Sailor Moon not that anyone here thought I did. But hey, disclaimers are fashionable.

A longer chapter finally, and one involving both action and plot. What a concept! Next, to Kim Creole - who wrote a lengthy and passionate review of the last chapter but has no FFN account so I cannot reply to him/her/it/they directly, I wrote a response to your criticism and posted it on my profile page since putting it in the chapter would feel too much like padding the word count. Lastly, this is the last chapter I have 'in the can' as of this date. Chapter 8 may be finished by next week, but from here on out updates are likely going to be less regular. Sorry, but that's how it goes.

* * *

It was pleasantly cool out and the Juuban district was usually safe in the evening, so the three of them walked. For a long time, they were all quiet. Harry was quiet because he was still trying to get a handle on the whirlwind of emotions inside of him. Ami was quiet because she truly didn't know what to say. Sirius was quiet because his back was still killing him after crushing that table and Saeko Mizuno's 'tender' ministrations, and he didn't want to grouse about her in front of her daughter. And he didn't know what to say either.

Finally, Sirius broke the silence. "Your father…what is he like?"

Ami flushed with embarrassment, but was still grateful for the icebreaker. "He is an artist, he lives in Okayama now and teaches at a school there. He writes to me twice a month, and he sends me a painting for my birthday and New Year's every year. When I was little, Mother was always busy with her studies or with her work, so he was the one who took care of me. He and Mother divorced the year before I started junior high, and he made sure I understood that it was not at all my fault."

"He sounds like a very good man," Sirius said quietly.

She nodded. "I miss him very much."

"I….I'm glad you had a good father, Ami. I wasn't there for you, and I am sorry. I didn't know."

"It is …alright, Black-san. …Should I call you Father?"

He shook his head. "Call me what you want to call me … I even answer to Snuffles some times." Harry coughed hard and Ami giggled. "Ami, I don't know how to be a father. I'm not sure I even know how to be an adult. Even Harry is better at it than I am sometimes, and he's an ungrateful little punk." Sirius dodged Harry's elbow and continued. "As I was saying, there are a lot of important things I don't know how to do. But you are my daughter, and even if you don't need another father I want to be here for you in whatever way I can. Just tell me how to help."

Ami nodded. "Thank you, Black-san. Please understand, this is all very strange. This morning, it was just myself, Mother, and a father far away. Suddenly, I now have a mother, two fathers, and a little brother from a previous life," she said with a smile directed at Harry. Harry couldn't help smiling back.

Sirius grinned. "Actually, you also have a few cousins on my side. And Harry is your cousin too."

Both Ami and Harry blinked. "Really?"

"Really. My aunt, Dorea Black, married Harry's grandfather Charlus Potter. The Blacks disowned her for it, but blood is blood. Anyway, that means that my best friend James Potter and I were first cousins. Since Harry is James's son and you are my daughter, that makes you two second cousins as well as reincarnatey siblings –oof!"

Harry glared up at Sirius, who was rubbing his bruised ribs. "I told you, 'reincarnatey' is NOT a word."

Sirius would have argued with him, but he was interrupted by a flutter of wings as a large snowy owl perched on a nearby railing. "Hedwig?" Harry asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to bring you a warning. Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, and Sailor Venus were on patrol tonight and found another of Jedite's monster lairs. There were able to destroy two of the three yoma, but the third escaped. They are trying to track it down, but it might have come this way. I apologize if I am interrupting anything, but you needed to know." The owl spread her wings and bobbed her head in an imitation of a formal bow to Ami.

Sirius nudged Harry, who cleared his throat. "Hedwig, allow me to introduce Ami Mizuno, also known as Sailor Mercury. Ami, this is Hedwig, the first and best birthday present I ever got and one of my truest friends."

Ami smiled and bowed to the owl. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Have you met the others yet, or are you just passing messages for Luna and Artemis?"

"I'm just passing a message; there hasn't been an opportunity yet for formal introductions." Hedwig gave Harry a significant look.

Sirius had his wand out and was looking around. "A loose yoma, huh? How would you go about finding it?"

"Well, normally we use my computer and visor, but… oh, of course! How silly of me." Ami glanced around. "I need to transform, is anyone looking our way?"

Harry and Sirius looked around and Hedwig did the same. "I think we're clear," Harry said. "No wait, there's someone heading our way…uh oh."

"What?" Ami asked, peering around Sirius.

"I think that's the yoma."

Ahead of them, a tall figure had turned the corner from a side street. On first glance it was feminine, but definitely not normal. On second glance, it was definitely not human and probably hostile. Tiger-striped blue fur covered it from feline head to clawed feet, and blood dripped from its fanged mouth. Here and there were discolored patches of fur where it had been injured but since had healed, apparently. It turned and spotted the group and grinned. "More humans, good! I'll need your strength to get home safely, and the bird will make a tasty dessert."

Hedwig launched herself into the air indignantly. "Try and catch me, kitty! Sirius, hold it off while Sailor Mercury transforms!"

Sirius grinned. "My pleasure." Stepping forward, he rolled his hands around to loosen up his wrists. "Let's start with the basics, shall we? _Petrificus totalus_!" The yoma squirmed for a split second, but its limbs didn't snap tightly against its body the way Neville's had two years ago. "Pity, but not surprising. _Ferrum durum_!" Harry didn't recognize this spell, but when the yoma merely stumbled back a step and hissed angrily he guessed that it wasn't the effect Sirius had intended. "Oh hell… _Fontem vini_!" A stream of something purple-red and liquid shot out of the tip of Sirius's wand and splashed in the yoma's eyes. Yowling in pain, it rubbed at them with both furry hands.

"What was THAT?" Harry asked, confused. He drew his own wand and fired off an _Expelliarmus_ at the yoma, to no effect.

"Fountain of Wine. Sadly, what it produces is more like vinegar, but that just makes a face-full of it sting even worse."

"Less chatting, more spells!" Hedwig commanded. "Sailor Mercury, stop watching and transform!"

Ami blushed in embarrassment. "Oh, sorry…" Reaching into her pocket, she produced what looked like a wand of her own, a brightly-colored enameled rod topped with a golden star. "MERCURY STAR POWER!" she cried, and swirls of blue energy shot forth from its tip. Harry looked back and eeped as his cousin/sister's clothing disappeared for a second before the blue swirls wrapped around her and became her battle uniform. It was exactly as Crookshanks and Hedwig had described back in England, a white leotard with a sailor top and large blue bows in front and back, a blue miniskirt, elbow-length white gloves, blue go-go boots, and a golden tiara set with a sapphire. It was girly as hell, seemed very impractical, and yet was bizarrely stylish. Harry just hoped that the uniform for Princes was …something, _anything_ else.

Meanwhile, Sirius and the yoma were squaring off. Sirius had gotten, well, serious and was now throwing off _Bombardas_ and _Diffindos_ at the blue-furred beast. The spells were knocking it around and opening cuts on the monster, but the wounds closed almost as fast as they opened and the yoma kept finding its balance again. The monster surged toward him and swiped with its claws, but Sirius back-pedaled quickly to avoid getting gutted. "_Stupefy_!" he shouted as a red ray shot from his wand, but it seemed to have no effect.

"Can you help him?" Harry asked urgently.

Sailor Mercury quickly touched her earring and a clear visor appeared before her eyes. Data about the yoma began to appear. "I can try, but it's very fast. My attacks take longer to charge up than his spells."

"Then let me buy you some time," Harry said, grinning. This evening had been confusing as hell, but here and now was exactly what he had come to Japan to do – fight beside his sister. Even better, he knew exactly how to help. Raising his wand high, he filled his mind with the memory of a pair of arms embracing him and the sudden feeling of connection. "_EXPECTO PATRONUM_!"

Silver-white light exploded from the tip of the wand, forming into an enormous stag. "Get it, Prongs!" Harry yelled and snapped the wand forward. The stag charged, its hooves sending brilliant sparks flying from the pavement. Sirius had only a moment to glance behind himself before throwing himself out of the way with an expletive no one heard. The yoma's eyes widened in shock and then it was too late.

Prong slammed into the yoma with the force of an oncoming truck, impaling the monster with his silver antlers. The monster screamed in agony, and the great stag disdainfully tossed it into the air to land hard on the sidewalk. "Good job, Prongs, don't let it get away." As the brilliant creature stood guard over the monster, Harry turned to Sailor Mercury with a grin. "All yours…"

Taking a deep breath, she nodded. A drop of water coalesced in the air in front of her, immediately falling to splash in a puddle at her feet. Sailor Mercury raised her hands into the air and whirled around slowly. Streams of water, born of her magic and charged with the power of life and the planets, gathered around her hands. When she spoke, her voice resounded with power. "_SHINE…AQUA…ILLUSION_!" Her hands came down and water thundered forth with the force of a cannon blast. The yoma, already hurting from the Patronus's antlers, only had a moment to scream before being annihilated. The water evaporated as quickly as it appeared, leaving behind only glittering motes on the sidewalk. Sailor Mercury smiled. "As Sailor Moon likes to say, moon-dusted. …Harry-kun? Are you alright?"

"Why?" he asked. Then the exhaustion overwhelmed the adrenaline and he collapsed.

Sirius and Sailor Mercury both rushed to his side. Sailor Mercury crouched down and carefully applied two fingers to his pulse point. "Is he alright?" Sirius asked.

She nodded. "He'll be fine, he's just really tired. Could you please buy him some fruit juice, Black-san? There is a vending machine across the street."

As Sirius nodded and went, Hedwig landed and brushed a wingtip against Harry's face. "The frustrating thing is that this is generally how _all_ of his battles end," she commented. "He always fights on no matter how steep the odds and he always finds a way to turn the battle around and win it. But in the process he invariably over-extends himself and winds up in the infirmary. The head nurse has threatened to put a sign over one of the beds, reserving it for his personal use."

Sailor Mercury smiled at the owl. "You love him very much, don't you…"

Hedwig bobbed her head. "Since the moment we set eyes on each other. I was less intelligent then and couldn't speak of course, but I was already a full adult of my kind and living in a shop waiting for someone to purchase me. One day there he was, a scrawny little eleven-year-old with hair like a worn-out feather duster and eyes full of fear and wonder. One look and I knew he needed someone to look after, someone to be his companion and his alone. It was a bit of a kerfuffle making sure I was the owl he left with, but we've been together ever since. I've done my best to help him feel less alone, but now that he has you and that mangy mutt as well, perhaps he'll finally be able to be happy. That is, I assume he has you now…"

Sailor Mercury nodded. "He has me. We used to be brother and sister, I can feel it. And now it seems we are cousins, but the important thing is that we have each other." Slowly, she held out a gloved hand. "Thank you for looking after him, Miss Owl."

Hedwig, lacking hands, spread her wings and bowed. "It has been my pleasure, Princess Mercury. Please call me Hedwig."

"And I am Ami."

Sirius returned with a few cans right about then. "Which one of these is juice? Honestly, I couldn't figure out which was which in that machine, so I got one of everything."

Sailor Mercury smiled and took the cans from him. "Thank you, Black-san. Could you move him to that bench over there? He should wake up soon."

As Sirius picked up Harry, none of them noticed the dark figure watching them from a nearby alley, nor did they see it leave.

When Harry awoke, he was bracketed between his godfather and his new sister. Her battle costume had vanished, leaving her in her normal clothing. "Here," she said, handing him a can. "Drink this, it will help."

Opening the can, he took a sip and found that it was lemonade. He took a longer drink, burping a little. "Excuse me. What happened?"

"You over-exerted yourself, Harry-kun," Ami said quietly. "Your silver deer attack was very powerful, but you put too much of your strength into it and held it for too long."

Sirius snickered and waved his hands around. "Silver…Deer…Attack!" he fake-shouted.

Harry elbowed him. "Laugh it up, dogfather, I didn't see you hurting that thing much."

"Hey, I tried. Seriously, kid – and hush you, I'm not trying to be funny this time – you've got to start pacing yourself better. Passing out after each fight leaves you vulnerable, if there had been another monster you might have been kibbles before we could stop it."

Harry sighed. "I know, it's just… The Patronus is hard; if you don't focus on it it doesn't work."

Sirius nodded. "Then we need to get you started training with Mamoru as soon as possible. It looks like I'm going to be less help than I hoped."

"You did very well, Black-san, you held it off for three minutes without getting hurt. Most normal people who try to fight yoma end up badly injured."

"Well, I guess that's something, then. Looks like I'll have to train as well."

Ami gave Harry a smile. "You did very well too."

"Thanks," he said shyly, and drank the rest of his lemonade.

"Pass me one of those drinks, Ami, if we're waiting for young Prongslet here to get his feet back under him then I've got something to talk about that I've been trying to bring up all night. How would you feel about being Harry's tutor over the summer break?"

Elsewhere, the dark figure slipped down an alleyway, unseen by anything except maybe a stray cat or two. The cats knew better than to bother it, they recognized a more dangerous predator when they smelled one. The figure finally stopped in front of a blank section of wall. The paint on it was only a few weeks old, applied to cover up what the owner of the building thought had been simple graffiti. That was fine by the creator of the unwanted pattern: its work was still on the wall, merely hidden. The dark figure traced the hidden pattern with a fingertip, and purple energies began to shine through the white paint. A moment later, a swirl of darkness formed on the wall and the figure stepped into it. A few moments later the portal closed, leaving no trace that anything strange had ever been there.

Beyond the portal was a very different place, a large echoing corridor carved out of black rock. The atmosphere was dark and gloomy, with a vibration in the air that set the nerves on edge. It was an ever-present feeling of danger, tinged with anger, despair, and lust for power. The dark figure immediately felt at home, for this was the Negaverse and it was a native. The dark figure walked through the corridors, pointedly ignoring the few creatures it passed on its way. There was little kinship among yoma, after all, the Negaverse was a monster-eat-monster sort of world where only the strong survived and flourishing depended almost entirely on pleasing their masters.

And flourished, the dark figure had done. For yoma (which she was), form either followed function faithfully or belied it completely. This yoma was one of the former, her master had shaped her into an infiltrator and so her appearance was very human indeed. Her black hair was long and fell over half her face in front. She wore a long double-breasted coat and high heels, and on the whole looked like one of thousands of office girls out visiting a club after a long day at work. Her true nature was hidden, and if a human managed to penetrate her disguise it would probably be the last thing he ever did.

Clack, clack, clack, the yoma's heels echoed through the throne room as it entered. It was capable of being stealthy, but she had learned the hard way not to sneak up on her master. The castle had once belonged to Queen Beryl, but Beryl was gone now and so was her throne. Lord Jedite had replaced it with a table made of crystal, the very crystal he had once been imprisoned in. There were a few chairs around the table, but none of them were distinctive. Jedite preferred to rule from wherever he happened to be sitting rather than waste time impressing anyone with furniture. Jedite didn't seem to spend that much of his time sitting anyway, noted the yoma. She was young, too young to remember the days of Queen Beryl's reign, but the Lord Jedite she knew was a restless man, almost constantly moving from one place to the next. When he wasn't overseeing his plans, he was training in the bowels of the castle or wandering through the library with a book in hand. Perhaps his time spent in the Crystal of Eternal Sleep had cured him of any desire to sit still.

Today, Lord Jedite had maps spread out on the table. Most of them were maps of Tokyo, more specifically the Azabu Juuban district and the rest of the Minatoku ward, but some were of the other areas of the city or even of Japan as a whole. The yoma recognized them because she had acquired them herself. "Lord Jedite," she said, touching her fist to her shoulder in salute. "I have news you should probably hear."

Jedite looked up from his maps. "Ahh, Eyeko," he replied as if he hadn't been aware of her presence all along. "How goes it in the city?"

"Troubling, my Lord. Two more yoma lairs have been tracked down and destroyed."

"Which ones?" he asked.

"The bakery two nights ago, and the tiger-women tonight."

"I see…" With a wave of his hand, two markers on the map vanished. "I did warn them that a bakery was a bad cover. The Sailor Scouts can sniff out a tainted cupcake in almost no time flat. It's as if they were teenage girls or something," he said sarcastically. "And the tigers, no loss there. I only let them go to keep the Sailor Scouts busy."

"I had wondered about that, my Lord." Eyeko had been lucky enough to be present when the trio of tiger-yoma had swaggered into the throne room and demanded to be sent to Earth. When Jedite refused, telling them that they had the subtlety of a rocket-powered battering ram and exactly what happened to yoma who couldn't be subtle, they had insisted and made threats. Smirking, Jedite had yielded and allowed them to go. That should been a warning to them right there, but they had foolishly considered it a victory and a sign of weakness in the last of the Dark Generals. Their mistake had been sealed when Jedite offered to let them keep all of the energy they gathered. Now all of them were dead, and Jedite's point was once again driven home – only the cunning prospered in his domain.

"Now tell me, Eyeko, was that the troubling news, or is there something else?"

"The Sailor Scouts have new allies, my Lord."

"Show me."

Eyeko brushed aside her hair to reveal the telephoto lens that replaced her left eye. It wasn't really an implant, merely a part of her that had developed under her master's guidance. The lens glowed, and a holographic image formed above the table. Three people were walking down a street together, an adult male, a teenage girl, and a younger boy. A large white bird swooped down to land nearby, and they seemed to talk to it for a few moments before a yoma entered the scene. Jedite watched as the adult male engaged the yoma with some kind of magic that didn't seem to affect the yoma much. "That doesn't seem to be much of an ally," he commented.

"Keep watching, my lord, the children particularly."

Soon, the girl exploded into light and was replaced by Sailor Mercury. Jedite remembered her from his under Queen Beryl, a weak fighter but a canny one. He had even seen her true face once, but that memory and many others had become a little muddled while in the Eternal Sleep. "Rewind and enlarge, can you show me her face before she transforms?"

Eyeko did her best to oblige, but her camera eye hadn't been able to capture much detail at that range. Short-haired girls were five yen a dozen in Tokyo. Sighing, Jedite bid Eyeko to continue. Once Sailor Mercury joined the battle, he expected her to make short work of the headstrong tiger-woman, but again he was surprised when instead the boy summoned a creature made of pure silver magic and unleashed it on the yoma. His eyebrows lifted as the yoma went flying from the creature's charge, and lifted even more when the horned creature stood over the weakened monster and waited. The Sailor Scouts did not begin a spell and hold it; their magical attacks were usually brief and destructive. As if proving his point, Sailor Mercury destroyed the yoma before it could get up. A few moments later, the boy collapsed and the silver creature disappeared. As Sailor Mercury and the ineffectual mage rushed to the boy's side, Eyeko's recording ended.

"Is that all you were able to collect?"

Eyeko nodded. "The bird was still in the area, and my instincts told me to avoid letting it spot me. I watched for a little while longer from deeper shadow, but I learned little. The Sailor Scout and the bird seemed to talk to each other for a while," she said with irritation. Jedite smiled. For some reason the yoma seemed to have a grudge against Earth animals in general and the Sailor Scouts' assistants in particular. Jedite didn't understand it and didn't particularly care, but he took his amusement where he could find it. He was building an empire from ashes and chaos through sheer force of will, and it was the little things that kept him going.

"Thank you, Eyeko. You may return to your duties, but first…" Jedite flexed his hand, and a mote of energy appeared above his palm. It grew into a marble-sized sphere as he concentrated, and once it was the right size he waved it over to the yoma. "A reward for good sense and good service." Showing her yoma nature, Eyeko all but pounced on the sphere, ingesting the energy and shuddering as it rushed through her. Life energy was both a nourishment and a drug to yoma, the purer the better. Jedite himself preferred to corrupt the energy he absorbed first, absorbing untainted energy brought out the weakness he had forsaken long ago. Yoma had no such problem, they were creatures of the Negaverse through and through and were both benefited and inhibited by their nature. Jedite, however, like his brother Generals, had been a human once.

In the beginning, the four of them had been warriors in the service of Prince Endymion of the Moon Kingdom's Earth colony. It had been a beautiful island kingdom in the Indian Ocean, isolated from the rest of the world by veils of magic. A thousand years later, Jedite could still remember the smell of blossoms on the wind. All that was left of the island now was blast-blackened rocks scattered between the waves, rocks and memories. Jedite was the only one with any living memory of the island now, and even he was beginning to forget. Before the Eternal Sleep he could still remember the island's name, but that was gone now. One by one, the details of his old life would pass from his mind, and it would be as if it had never existed.

They had been Endymion's bodyguards and truest servants, his right and left hands, his sword and shield. Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite, brothers in arms and brothers in spirit if not in body. They had trained together, fought together, lived together, and together they had betrayed their Prince in order to save him from himself. If only the fool had listened… Jedite felt his bile rise.

The island colony that was Earth's participation in the Moon Kingdom had been always considered the least of the Houses. They were the smallest in number and in strength, as they had to remain unnoticed by the mundane civilizations of the world. The veils around the island had been designed to keep out the regular humans but draw in those who had the inherent talent for High Magic. Every so often, some storm-battered ship would wash up on the shore, filled with people from all over the world whose unrealized potential had lead them there. They would be welcomed, made aware of the mighty empire their birthright gave them admittance to, and given a place to stay while they learned to use what was theirs. Once they were ready, most of them would journey out into the other worlds of the Moon Kingdom, eventually settling and joining one House or another. A rare few would stay in the Earth colony and join the ranks of those who served by teaching and guiding.

Jadeite and his brothers had been protectors, not teachers. Their duty was to accompany their Prince in his duties, both on the island and in the capital city on the Moon. They had walked the halls of the Palace, heard the whispers of disdain from the courtiers. Backwater rustics, they were called, mud-footed shepherds who were tasked with turning sheep into peasants, and given that task because they had more in common with the sheep than with the other Houses. They could have ignored the mockery, if not for the fact that it was obvious that Queen Serenity had little regard for the Earth either. Their Prince presented his reports to the Queen and was invited to social occasions, but more often than not both reports and Prince were forgotten as soon as they were out of sight.

For years they had been uncomfortable but resigned to their status at Court, but one spring things began to change. Endymion fell in love. And with whom? Someone safe and sensible, perhaps, such as a daughter of a minor House like Deimos or Callisto? Oh no, Endymion had shot his arrow into much more dangerous territory. Prince Endymion had fallen in love with the Moon Princess, Serenity's only daughter. The two had met at Princess Serenity's debut ball, and were instantly smitten with each other. Jadeite and his brothers had tried to warn Endymion, the Princess was much too young and the Queen would Not Be Amused by the least of the great Houses trying to poach the jewel of the Moon Kingdom. Their position at Court would be damaged beyond repair, and even the tenuous and indifferent support they got from the Moon Kingdom might dry up. Endymion had refused to listen, of course, for he was In Love and confident that Queen Serenity would find him a worthy suitor for her daughter.

In desperation, Kunzite had gone to the leader of the Princess's personal guard, the Sailor Senshi. Sailor Venus agreed with his assessment of the Queen's reaction, and together they tried to keep the two fools apart. It quickly turned into a full-time job for the both of them. Meanwhile, Jadeite had stumbled onto a project of his own, a mysterious note left for him in his quarters. It had simply read "_The Moon is a small lifeless rock, yet the Moon Queen wields fantastic power. Where does that power come from?_"

At first Jadeite had tried to discover who had left the note, but when he could find no leads he began to look for an answer to the question. The search lead him through children's storybooks, tomes of lore, the Palace archives, and into more than a few places that would have had him thrown in prison if he'd been caught. The most dangerous of those places was the Lunar Nexus, the focal chamber for the Moon Kingdom's magical infrastructure. All of the magical energy flows between the worlds were directed and maintained from there, feeding the ancient wards that made part of each planet and moon habitable. Jadeite spent hours in the Lunar Nexus, studying it, and learned two things: First, the entire network was focused through and controlled by the Imperium Silver Crystal, a powerful artifact that only responded to Queen Serenity and second, the Earth provided more than 70% of the energy used to maintain the Moon Kingdom.

The implications were staggering to Jadeite, and he had been so thunderstruck by it all that he nearly got himself caught sneaking back out. Later he explained what he'd learned to his brothers, that the Earth was the backbone of the Moon Kingdom and yet was treated like an unwanted country cousin. Even worse, the Queen knew and did nothing about it. That was the beginning of the end for them. Endymion refused to listen and kept sneaking away to meet with Serenity's daughter, and not long afterward the four of them met the sender of the mysterious note. She represented another empire, one that was poised to tear down the hypocritical reign of Queen Serenity. Their army was ready; they merely needed field commanders and the right time to strike. And so, the four of them had sworn loyalty to the Negaverse.

The attack had gone exactly as planned, at first. Each of the four Generals had led a lightning attack on one of the great Houses. Jadeite, by then called Jedite by whim of Queen Beryl (and one did not question Queen Beryl's whims), led the attack on House Mars. With their Princess away at the Moon Palace for yet another ball, the Martian Guard was easily tricked into reinforcing the wrong part of the defensive perimeter. By the time they realized their error it was too late, the defenses had been breached in several places and they were unable to stop Jedite from fulfilling his true mission – to desecrate and destroy the Sacred Flame, the spiritual heart of House Mars. The Martians were too used to receiving inspiration and insight from their temple fire, and so he had smothered it with their corpses.

Once that cheerful little task was done, he had raised a pair of gates: One to the Negaverse, so that the Queen's forces could enter freely, and the second to the Moon for the second stage of the assault. The Palace Guard had put up a better fight, but in the end they were not prepared to fight a real battle in their own halls. At least they had gotten their fondest wish, Jedite had reflected, and died in the service of their Queen. The chambers of the Moon Princess were the toughest nut to crack. The Princess's personal guardians, the Sailor Senshi, had carved through the yoma like burning swords through paper at first. Unfortunately for them, though, Malachite (once Kunzite) had an idea. He quickly disguised the four of them with their old uniforms and they 'fought' their way through the yoma to the Senshi. Recognizing them, Sailor Venus urged her comrades to hold their fire. Malachite repaid her with a slashed throat, and the other three were each mortally wounded before they could recover from the shock. Jedite could still remember the look on Venus's face…

Facing Endymion as he tried to defend Princess Serenity was almost anti-climactic. He'd immediately recognized them as traitors (the fact that Malachite was wearing Sailor Venus's blood had probably been a clue) and attacked. He'd fought well, but four against one was a foregone conclusion. Jedite couldn't remember any more which of them had struck the killing blow, but as their Prince lay dying on the floor with his forbidden lover crying over him Jedite had regretted his choice…for about five seconds before the nerve-grating sound of her wails destroyed the moment. They killed her quickly, just to shut her up.

By that point Queen Beryl and Queen Serenity were locked in battle, and for a white it looked like the Queen of the Negaverse would win. But when Serenity saw the crumpled, lifeless form of her daughter, the metaphorical gloves came off. Jedite hadn't been close enough to see exactly what had happened, but in the centuries since he'd puzzled it out. Simply put, Serenity had used the Imperium Silver Crystal to call up every bit of power that was hers to command. The entire magical output of nine planets and their collective moons was suddenly focused in one human being. It was insane. It was suicidal. And in Jedite's opinion, it was dumb. The Crystal could take that kind of energy flow, that was what it was for. But a human, even one as powerful as the Queen, couldn't touch power of that magnitude safely. Serenity hadn't cared. In that one moment she was beyond reason and focused entirely on one purpose – to make the Negaverse pay.

In retrospect, Jedite was amazed he had survived. Queen Beryl's survival was understandable; she was an ancient sorceress as steeped in the power of death as Queen Serenity was in the power of life. But the four Generals had had no such protection. After a thousand years, the best theory Jedite had was that the Queen had must have been so blind in her rage that she had spent her fury on the forces of the Negaverse in general and not had enough specific hatred of them to finish the four of them off. Obviously, she hadn't realized who specifically had had her daughter's blood on their hands.

At the time, though, Jedite had only been aware of an all-encompassing wave of brilliant white energy lifting him from the pavement and scorching his whole body as he was thrown back toward the portals. When they had come to, they were all back in the Negaverse with the portals destroyed and a fully-restored barrier between the dimensions. And thus began what Jedite would never have dared describe aloud as the Thousand-Year Sulk…

Eyeko was nearly out of the room before Jedite pulled himself from his musings. "Wait. I have another task for you."

The yoma hesitated. "My lord?"

Jedite drew another map from the bottom of the pile and rolled it carefully. "I want you to carry a message for me. Go to this location and show them this token," he said as he produced a small metal object from his pocket.

Eyeko accepts the two items and looked over the token. It was a golden pin, a shield superimposed over a quartet of crossed swords. The shield bore an emblem the yoma didn't recognize, a quartered circle. Tucking it away, she unrolled the map and looked at it. "Is….is this a joke, my lord?"

"No, Eyeko, I am quite serious."

"But …how long has this been here?"

"A thousand years, give or take a few."

"And no one's noticed it in all that time?"

Jedite smiled. "My experiences have taught me that most people see what they expect to see, not what is there. Don't worry, once you get close they'll find you. Show them the token quickly, though, or you won't have a chance to deliver the message."

"And what is the message, my lord?"

"Tell them General Jedite wants four of their most cunning warriors to report to the castle, it's time for the Enclave to earn its keep."

Eyeko rolled up the map again and saluted. "Yes, my lord. I will depart at once."

Jedite returned her salute and watched the yoma as she quickly walked to the door. Eyeko was one of his favorites, a yoma with both cunning and self-control. Her camera-eye regularly brought back useful information, but he had to be careful not to reward her too much or too often. Even a smart yoma was still just a yoma, a soulless monster that thrived on destruction and pain. Even Eyeko would lose control and run rampant if allowed to glut herself. That was the risk of relying on yoma, but Jedite had a plan for dealing with that. "After all," he mused to himself. "If those blasted Sailor Scouts can recruit, so can I…"


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I deny everything, especially the stuff you can prove. I freely admit to being responsible for the Spanish Inquisition, the penguin on top of your television exploding, and that flavor of marmalade that you hate.

Okay, I finished this chapter in time for the posting deadline that I set for myself, so hurrah me. From here on out, I'll post chapters when they're done. I've been doing better than usual at writing lately, so we'll see how it goes. If I were doing chapter titles for this story, Chapter Nine would be titled "Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch"...

* * *

_Dear Hermione,_

_ I hope this letter finds you alright. I don't know how international mail is handled in the magical world, but Hedwig tells me it'd take her a couple months to deliver this letter to England. Therefore, non-magical airmail it is. I've been in Japan for two weeks now, and it still feels like I'm completely lost half of the time. The people here have been really nice, though, our neighbors seem to like us even though they think we're weird and completely unable to cook for ourselves. Sirius and I live in a nice old house on a quiet street. I can't imagine a house and neighborhood more unlike Privet Drive even after seeing the Burrow. The houses on this street are mostly made of wood, and everyone takes good care of them. According to Mrs. Yamada next door, this neighborhood was bombed during the Second World War and rebuilt afterward. Most of the modern conveniences have been installed here, but you have to look close to notice them. I think people just like things to be old-fashioned on our street, and I have to admit that I kind of like it._

_ I'm not in school yet (more on that later), so I have a lot of free time right now. Each morning I tend the flower beds that I have inherited from Mr. and Mrs. Kobayashi, they were already in wonderful shape so it's mostly just a matter of keeping on top of the weeding and trimming. I also visit the neighbors a lot, since they keep bringing us plates of food in the evenings. Did you know that Britain has a reputation for having really boring food? I sure didn't! Of course, after Privet Drive the dinner tables at Hogwarts seemed like paradise, but the food here is its own kind of magic. As I said the neighbors keep trying to feed us, and most of the time I have to ask what exactly it was we ate for dinner last night. It's all been fantastic, though, and every dish is artistic as well as delicious. I've asked a couple of the neighbors if they could give me cooking lessons, but they just keep waving their hands and insisting that they're not good enough to teach anyone._

_ Oh, I guess I owe you a couple explanations. You see, I'm living with Sirius. He met me at King's Cross after you and your parents left, and we escaped from England together. The Moon Kingdom representatives – who happen to be Hedwig and Crookshanks, believe it or not – contacted Sirius after he got away and asked him to help me get to Japan. Since there's no Magical government here, he's not wanted for anything and so he can live free and clear in public here. Even better, he and my dad took a vacation in Japan the summer before their seventh year. I wouldn't exactly say he's familiar with the country, but he was eager to come back here. Even better, he still had the Translation Charms he and Dad used while they were here, and so while I still can't read Nihongo (my tutor insists that I call it the right name) I can speak and understand it just fine. The Translation Charm is also helping me learn the language for real, so in a couple years I might not need it any more. My tutor has offered to try and teach me how to read and write, but since there are THREE (!) different forms of the written language here, I may have to take the usual "gaijin" (foreigner) route and write it all out using the Western alphabet for now._

_ So as I was saying, Sirius met me at King's Cross. We took another train to Dover, and then a ferry to Calais. From there, we got a train to Paris. I know you and your parents have been to France, so maybe you can tell me more about it some time. We really didn't see that much of it. The train to Paris was an overnight trip, and we slept through most of it. When we got to Paris, Sirius took me shopping. I'm still mad at him about it, because his idea of shopping was to tell the shop attendants some big story about me saving a girl's life (not sure if he meant Ginny last year), wave money under their noses, and then tell them to dress me. The jerk did this in four different shops! I've never been so embarrassed in my life… After that, we went to visit the Eiffel Tower and I ended up just staring at everything. I almost wish I'd had a camera, but I would have forgotten to use it anyway. Or Sirius would have borrowed it to take pictures of girls._

_ The flight to Japan was boring. Really boring. Imagine being stuck in History of Magic for eight hours, but without anything to read._

_ We met another Moon Kingdom representative at our hotel the next day. His name is Mamoru Chiba (though they say it Chiba Mamoru here), and starting today he's going to teach me how to use High Magic. He's a college student, though he's nearly finished with his degree in architecture. He's a nice guy, but kinda sarcastic and his sense of humor is a little like Sirius's. We stayed with him for a few days before we bought our new house and moved in. I haven't met most of the Senshi (it translates as 'warriors', but they call themselves Sailor Scouts too) yet, but I've already fought my first monster. Sirius, Ami, and I were out walking the night before last, and Hedwig came to warn us that the Senshi had flushed out a den of yoma (yoma are kind of like vampires crossed with werewolves and a whole bunch of other things tossed in at random. Mamoru tells me that there are even yoma who look like killer cupcakes and fashion dolls) and that one escaped. It found us soon afterward. Sirius used his magic on it, but even the attack spells he learned in Auror School didn't seem to hurt it much. I cast my Patronus and I really must have High Magic because my stag threw it around and hurt it badly. Ami finished it off, using her magic to blast it into 'moon dust'._

_ Oh, right. Ami is my sister. I met her earlier that night. She's really nice and really smart. She took first place in the nation on her exams a couple years ago, and she's been in the top ten ever since. (Yes, she reminds me a little of you.) In her spare time, she fights monsters as Sailor Mercury, and now that school has let out for the summer she's my tutor as well. I've got a LOT to learn in the next two months before the next term starts, but I feel like I'm in good hands. It's a little weird, I've never had a sister before and Ami's never had a brother before, but somehow we can both feel that we're siblings. I guess we'll figure out how it works as we go, but so far it's like having a new friend that can explain frustrating things because she's been through them already. I really miss you and Ron, but being able to talk to Ami and Hedwig and Sirus helps make it feel less strange here._

_ Speaking of Ron, I know he was hoping we could go with them to the Quidditch World Cup this summer, but obviously that's out for me. I know you're not really a Quidditch fan, but I hope you'll get to go if you want to. …I guess I'd better come out and say it. I'm including a money order with this letter, would you please accept it and use it to get yourself an owl? I was going to put all my leftover Galleons in the envelope, but Sirius says that the Muggle post office would pitch a fit if I did that. I don't need wizarding money here, but I need your help to stay in touch with Ron. Last summer Ron tried to call me in Little Whinging, and …Uncle Vernon didn't take it well when Ron shouted in his ear. I know Mr. Weasley likes to fiddle around with muggle stuff in his shed, but I'm not sure any of them really understand how things like telephones and the postal system work. So, I was thinking that if I can buy you an owl, I can include letters to Ron with my letters to you, and you could send them off to him for me? Please? I also feel like I should get you another pet since Crookshanks joined the Moon Kingdom and you might have noticed by now that he's a lot less pleasant now that he can talk._

_ I'd better finish up; Ami will be here soon to continue my tutoring (and this afternoon I'm going to a Shinto shrine to begin my training). I have two months to try and get caught up with my grade level, they're more lenient with foreigners here but I don't want to swap being the 'Boy-Who-Lived' for being 'That Dumb Gaijin'. I'm including a couple photographs that Sirius or Mamoru took for me; I'm a bit hopeless with a camera so far. Last week I used up half a roll of film trying to take pictures of the garden before Sirius pointed out that the lens cap was still on. Anyway, please write back and tell me all about your summer. I like it here, but I miss England and you guys especially._

_Your Friend,_

_ Harry Potter_

The acolyte hall at the Hikawa Shrine looked fairly good for a building that had been neglected for at least two decades. Grandpa Hino, or Hino-sensei as he had been called once, had tried his best, but when his son declined to follow him into the priesthood he had ended up carrying the majority of the shrine's burden on his own slowly-weakening shoulders. When Rei came to live with her grandfather, she had been too young to help with repairs, and by the time Yuuichirou had settled in as the shrine apprentice the list of things that needed a young man's attentions was fairly long. And while Yuuichirou had come a long way from the hapless so-called rock star they'd found sleeping on their porch one morning, he still wasn't exactly a professional carpenter. Between Yuuichirou's earnest labor and Grandpa Hino's untrained-yet-experienced guidance, things tended to get fixed fairly well but not quickly.

Case in point, the acolyte hall. They'd done their best to keep the exterior in repair so that it wouldn't become an eyesore, but on the inside it needed serious help. Or perhaps it needed Sirius help, help it was about to get. Mamoru and Harry were sitting underneath one of the shady trees on the grounds, and Sirius Black was having a few quiet words with Grandpa Hino at the open door of the hall. The floorboards inside the hall were, quite frankly, a weathered and brittle mess and it had only taken one of them shattering beneath Harry's foot to send him and his teacher back outside.

"I'm not sure what you think you can do with this, Mr. Black, but if you really want to try then I don't see why not," Grandpa said, looking up at him from what seemed like the level of Sirius's waist.

Sirius pulled out his wand. "The kind of magic that Harry and I do has many practical applications; our people have been using it to ease everyday life for centuries." He was still smarting from his less-than-stellar performance against the yoma, and so was eager to find some way he could contribute. If serving as a magical fix-it man was all he could give right now, he'd run with it. "For example, with a little Transfiguration we can turn this," he said, pointing his wand at an old, rotted board. "into this." A few sparks and a twisting of material later, a whole and well-seasoned plank of wood was sitting before them.

Grandpa Hino clapped. "Very well done! But will it stay like that?"

Sirius grinned. "If I had turned it into a hedgehog or a bar of iron, it would eventually turn back. But because all I did was turn wood into wood, that plank will have rotted away again naturally long before the magic wears off. However…" He spoke a couple quiet incantations and a gentle blow glow enveloped the wood for a moment before sinking into it. "That is a Strengthening Charm, it makes the wood stronger and more resistant to harm. That particular board will probably outlive us all now."

"Not bad," Grandpa Hino said, picking up the plank to look at it. "But won't that make it harder to nail it down too?"

Sirius slapped his forehead in frustration. "…Right. Okay, new plan: Fix the board, nail down the board, THEN charm the board. Got it."

Under the tree, Mamoru and Harry were sitting cross-legged facing each other. "All right, we are going to start you with the basics. What do you know about High Magic?" Mamoru asked.

Harry shrugged. "I know that it exists, and that my Patronus Charm is at least partly High Magic."

"It's a start. Now then, as we understand it, High Magic is drawn from the energy of the planets and stars. If it exists, it radiates energy. If it is alive, that energy is greater."

"So wouldn't that make Earth the most powerful planet of all?" Harry asked.

Mamoru shrugged. "Well, that would be logical…"

"Is there a Sailor Earth?"

"Not that I've ever heard of. Apparently I used to be the Prince of the Earth, which sounds pretty unlikely when I think about it."

"How come?"

"Well, 'a thousand years ago' is still within recorded history, and I've never read anything about any civilization in the Dark Ages credibly acknowledging a Prince of the Whole Darn Planet. More likely, I was the heir apparent to some little place acknowledged by the Moon Kingdom but otherwise tucked away where no one could find it."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, I can see how 'The Prince of Hogsmeade' would be less impressive."

"Hogsmeade?"

"It's a village near my school in Scotland, they start letting students go there every month or so starting in third year. It's supposed to be the only fully-magical village in Great Britain, so it's probably warded to keep non-magical people from noticing it."

Mamoru grinned. "Well, in my authority as Prince of the Earth, I hereby dub you Harry Potter, Duke of Hogsmeade. Rule wisely, rule well, and try to rule without anyone realizing it. But we're really getting off the track here. As I was saying, energy comes from all things, but especially from life. Where do wizards say that magic comes from?"

Harry shrugged. "No one's ever told me, maybe they say in one of the upper years. So far it's been 'magic is just here, and here's how you use it'."

"Hmm," Mamoru frowned, not impressed. "I'll grant that we're not much better, but we've been piecing it together on our own for the last two years. Whatever books still exist are on the Moon; the Senshi can go there if all five of them work together but it's not something they do unless the need is great. If they could do it just to raid the library then I'm sure Ami would have insisted long ago."

Harry smiled. After a couple days' acquaintance, he could tell that Ami loved books almost as much as Hermione did though she seemed a little more balanced in that regard. Where Hermione liked to do her studying in the library where she could pile her table high with books until it resembled a hardcover version of a blanket fort, Ami preferred to keep one or two reference works handy while she studied outside in the sunshine and went inside to swap books when she needed to. So far, being tutored in the garden was occasionally a distraction for Harry, but ultimately more relaxing. "No books, then. That's good, my head is so full of school books right now I'd probably get confused and start trying to write a history essay about the Moon Kingdom."

"I think Ami's nearly done that a time or two," Mamoru said with a grin. "I know Usagi has even turned in homework like that, but since her teachers have pretty low expectations for her to begin with they just thought she was writing about her daydreams. One of them wrote her a note suggesting she submit it in writing class instead."

"So how do we do this, then?"

"We'll try the easy way first, meditation and practice."

"What's the hard way?"

"We take away your wand and throw you into a room full of yoma with only your owl to help you, and hope that instinct kicks in before you get eaten."

"I think I like the easy way."

"I thought you might," Mamoru said, ignoring Hedwig's disapproving 'hmph'. "Okay, has your wizard school taught you how to meditate?"

Harry thought about it. "No, I don't think so…"

"That's strange. Okay then, you're about to learn the fine art of sitting there and doing nothing."

He blinked. "Are you serious?"

"No, he's in the acolyte hall, hammering nails with a wand somehow." Harry groaned, and Mamoru continued. "Pay attention. Meditation is a centuries-old discipline for clearing your mind, relaxing your body, and connecting with your soul. And all it really is, is sitting still and doing nothing. First off, make sure you're sitting comfortably. A lot of methods have positions and postures they like to teach, but all I really care about is that you don't get a cramp in a few minutes. You can tie yourself in yoga pretzels some other time. Next, breathe. Slowly. In… Out… In… Out… Concentrate on your breathing, let that be all you think about…"

Inside the hall, Sirius was indeed hammering nails, but after a few botched attempts at Banishing the nail into the plank he had resorted to using a hammer. The nails went in just fine using magic, but apparently he needed a lot more practice in controlling their trajectory as his left shoe could attest. Grandpa Hino sat nearby, supervising. This tall foreigner was a bit silly and a bit dangerous to be around, but he meant no harm and he was getting a day's worth of restoration work done in an hour and with little expense to the shrine. Often, money was the real limiting factor for their repairs, even a temple like the Hikawa Shrine that had many visitors did not always have lots of donations. "Say, have you ever been to a summer festival?" he asked.

Sirius waited until he was done with his current nail before answering. "Yes, back when I visited Japan in the Seventies, Saeko-chan took James and I to one in Nekomi. I forget what the temple was called, but we had a great time."

Grandpa rubbed his chin. "Nekomi, Nekomi… Must have been the Tariki Hongan Temple. It's a nice place, and I hear it's been personally blessed by the gods. Anyway, I was thinking. We're putting on a festival here in a couple weeks, would you and your nephew be willing to help us out? My granddaughter and her friends usually lend us a hand, but we could always use more help. Could you run a booth, or put on a magic show or something?" Grandpa was already aware of Sirius's 'tv magician' cover, after decades of experience as a priest he was the kind of person whom people liked to talk to, and Sirius liked to talk.

"Sure, I'd love to. I'll have to ask Harry, but I'm sure he'll be interested. He's a pretty hard-working kid, especially when he likes the people he's doing it for." Sirius hammered in another nail quickly. "And so far I'd say he really likes it here."

Harry wasn't sure if his mind was empty, but he'd gotten this breathing thing down pretty well. He wanted to ask what was next, but Mamoru appeared to be deep in his own meditation. Well, Mamoru had told him to do nothing, so he might as well just do nothing, then. Harry let his eyelids droop as he kept on breathing. Soon he began noticing things. His heart was beating more slowly, he wasn't sure if that was good or bad. The afternoon sun was warm on his back and arms, it felt nice. Someone was sweeping the paths with a broom, he listened to it scratch against the stones for a little while before concluding it was probably an old-fashioned straw broom like he saw all the time at school. Sirius was still hammering nails, punctuated once in a while by an expletive as he managed to hammer a finger.

This meditation thing was easy, he thought before realizing that he'd lost his focus by thinking it. He tried to let his mind settle again. He found the stillness again fairly easy. In a way, he'd been doing something like it in one form or another for years. First, it had been gardening. Having to tend the Dursleys' yard and hedges had been a lot of work, and Harry had slowly learned to pay attention to what he was doing since mistakes would make Aunt Petunia angry. An angry Aunt Petunia wasn't as loud as an angry Uncle Vernon, but her words could be every bit as vicious and hurt all the more for the lack of volume. So, Harry had learned to not think and just do. Quidditch was a lot the same way. Being a Seeker wasn't necessarily about who had the better eyesight, otherwise he'd be complete pants at it. Instead it was about opening up your field of vision, to notice the moving fleck of gold in a big sky. Once you spotted it, it became a mad dash to get close to the Snitch and follow its crazy flight pattern until you could grab it. Thinking would just slow you down. Harry Potter was fairly good at not thinking.

And so, Harry Potter was not thinking (and sometimes thinking hard about not thinking) when the sound of girlish chatter floated toward them on the wind. "If that's what I think it is," Mamoru said as he opened his eyes. "You might want to start running now." A happy squeal was heard. "Nope, you're doomed. It was good knowing you, Duke Potter. If you're still alive tonight, try meditating some more and we'll talk again tomorrow."

Harry blinked in confusion and started to get up. From behind him, he heard the sound of running footsteps and an excited cry of "He's here!" Before he really knew what was going on, Harry found himself with a faceful of golden blonde hair and a teenage girl about his height hugging him. Before he could do anything about it she pulled away and held him by the shoulders. "Wow, you ARE cute! Welcome to Tokyo, Harry! I'm Minako Aino, but you can call me Mina! It's so _good_ to have you here!" she declared, hugging him again.

Harry, a bit baffled at her forwardness, tried to just go with it. "Um, glad to meet you? Hey wait, you're speaking English. _Real_ English!"

Mina giggled and stepped back, and Harry finally got a good look at her. She was blue-eyed and pretty, with blonde hair down past her hips tied back with a cheerful red ribbon. She was still Japanese, but… Then again, Ami's hair _was_ blue, maybe hair dye (and eye dye?) was a big fashion trend here. "I'm from London! Or at least I spent about six years there, but that's close enough right? I've only moved back to Japan two years ago, I hope I haven't forgotten too much!"

"You don't sound like you've forgotten anything. So, tell me if I'm doing this right…" Harry stepped back and bowed, his arms at his side. "Hello, my name is Harry Potter, I am honored to meet you."

Minako squealed and hugged him a third time. "That's close enough! Oh, it's going to be great having another Brit here! Do you follow football? It's hard to get the news, but I still support Crystal Palace. My dad likes Arsenal, but I'm hoping I can get him to change sides!"

"Geez, Minako, would you give him a chance to breathe? He's not going to be much help if you smother him before he can learn anything." Minako let go of Harry to give the owner of the sarcastic voice a mock-glare, and Harry found himself staring at another girl. Her hair was just as long as Minako's, but black as night rather than shining gold. Her outfit seemed very old-fashioned, a loose white jacket and a long red pleated skirt with white socks and sandals. She looked him over intently as she held out her hand. "Hello, my name is Rei Hino. Welcome to the Hikawa Shrine, I hope you will feel at home here."

Harry took her hand and clasped it gently before bowing. "I am honored to meet you, Hino-san. Are you related to Sensei Hino?"

Rei smiled a little. "He's my grandfather. I hope he hasn't done anything I need to apologize for, he gets …enthusiastic. Where is he, anyway?" she asked, looking around.

"He's in the hall with my godfather over there, and I hope _he_ hasn't done anything _I_ need to apologize for either. He gets enthusiastic too." Harry figured she was just trying to break the ice, since Sensei Hino had been nothing less than friendly when they met earlier.

Rei's eyes strayed up to Harry's scar, and her smile faded. "Please excuse me, I need to get caught up on my chores. It was a pleasure meeting you, Potter-san, we will talk more later." She bowed politely then turned to head for the acolyte hall.

Two other newcomers were standing nearby. "Don't mind Rei," the taller one said. "She takes a while to warm up to new people. Well, that and her shrine duties DO take a lot of her time. So yeah, hi, I'm Makoto Kino. Pleased to meet you."

She held out her hand too and Harry took it, only to find himself pulled into a hug. Being hugged by Makoto was a very different experience from being hugged by Mina or Ami. Ami's hugs (or at least the one he'd received so far) were gentle and comforting, like Harry had always imagined a hug should feel like. Minako's hug was enthusiastic and happy, a bit like being pounced on by a playful hippogriff. (Hermione, for the record, hugged with an equal blend of affection and desperation but that might have been because he was about to leave the country) Makoto, on the other hand… Makoto was tall, nowhere near Mamoru's height but nearly six inches taller than Harry and even though she had to bend down there was no escaping another obvious fact – Makoto was really well-endowed, even for a sixteen-year-old. Her embrace was somewhere between Ami's and Minako's in the realm of unspoken message, a blend of warm and friendly with an underlying strength. If Mrs. Weasley were sixteen and not inclined to smother, her hugs might feel like this. But even for Harry, who was somewhat behind the curve in the 'horny teenage boy' department, it was impossible to ignore the fact that he was being pressed against some very interesting female anatomy. In about three seconds, Harry's biological clock advanced at least three months.

When Makoto let go and stepped back, Harry was blushing madly. She winked, knowing exactly what she'd just done to him, and gave him a friendly smile. Harry also finally got a good look at her. She was a vivacious brunette with green eyes and a high ponytail. Her posture was confident and strong, but little touches like her rose earrings and some subtle makeup declared that while she was a strong girl, she was all girl.

Ami was standing next to the last new girl, who had the strangest hairstyle Harry had ever seen. She was blond, though a few shades darker than Minako, and her hair was pulled up and rolled into a pair of buns perched up at the 'corners' of her head like ears. From there a pair of pigtails descended to her ankles. She maybe five feet tall, and so was the only one of the group who had to really look up at him. "You're not into Gundam, are you?" she asked bluntly.

"Usagi…" Ami groaned.

Harry blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Gundam! Giant robots, guys inside piloting them and shouting at each other as they fight like they can hear each other?" At Harry's blank look, she sighed in relief. "Oh, thank goodness, someone _sane_. Hi, I'm Usagi Tsukino."

Harry bowed, then looked at Ami in confusion. "It's a television show, sort of a war story with enormous human-shaped battle machines. It's very popular with boys, particularly Usagi's brother. He's about your age."

Usagi rolled her eyes dramatically. "I thought it was bad when he was just trying to prank me all the time, but now there's posters and toys and he's building models on the kitchen table and he and his buddies come over to watch it every day and now he wants Mom to make him a costume so he can wear it to a convention this summer! Ugh!"

"And what about the princess dress you asked for – and got – last summer?" Ami teased.

"That's different!" Usagi declared, folding her arms and pouting. "I really AM a princess, so I need to be able to look like one every now and then."

"And maybe Shingo really will pilot a giant robot some day, so why shouldn't he have the uniform? Who knows, when you're a queen maybe you'll need giant robot pilots and who better to lead them than your brother?" Ami's eyes were positively sparkling with twisted amusement.

"Hmph! When I'm Queen, there will be armored knights riding unicorns and Shingo can sweep streets for all I care!"

Harry finally laughed and held out his hand. "Hello, my name is Harry Potter, and I will try not to get hooked on this Gundam thingy. You are Sailor Moon, correct?"

Usagi took his hand with both of hers and squeezed it. "Uh huh! You know Sailor Mercury already, Makoto is Sailor Jupiter, Minako is Sailor Venus, and Rei is Sailor Mars. There are four more Sailor Senshi, but three of them moved to America this spring and we almost never see Sailor Pluto unless there's something _really_ scary happening. Oh, Mamo-chan! I didn't see you there!" Dropping Harry's hand, she ran around him to fling herself at Mamoru. The tall man caught her before her light weight could bounce off of him, and she rubbed her cheek on his chest not unlike an affectionate cat.

Minako linked her arm with Harry's and began to gently pull him toward the house behind the shrine. "Let's go to Rei's room, we usually have our meetings in there. It's gorgeous out here, but there's usually someone around so we can't talk openly. So, football?" Mina was aghast to learn that Harry not only didn't have a team, but didn't even really know the sport. In self-defense, Harry began to explain Quidditch. By the time they got inside, both she and Makoto were fascinated by his descriptions of the game, while Ami openly wondered how anyone could play such a game and not get killed.

"It is pretty rough, I've ended up in the Hospital Wing after a match more than once, but Wizarding medicine is really good. A broken arm takes an hour or two to mend at most, and I once regrew all the bones in my arm overnight. It hurt a lot, but in the morning I was more or less fine."

"Harry!" Ami said, turning pale. "They took out all the bones in your whole arm? That's horrible!"

"It was an accident, Ami, I had just broken my arm and fallen off my broom getting the Snitch in a game, when this really incompetent teacher thought he'd show off and try to mend it right there on the pitch. The next thing I know, my whole arm was this wobbly tube of skin and muscle. If I hadn't been in shock it would have been funny."

Ami's face went from pale to angry. "Funny?! I hope they fired him for that! Treating serious injuries if you're not a trained professional is unforgiveable!"

Makoto put an arm around her shoulders. "Easy, Ami, Harry's fine now, see? You did see a real magic-doctor afterward, right Harry?"

Harry nodded. "Madam Pomphrey is the school nurse, but given kind of wild things she has to deal with I bet she's the equivalent of a one-woman trauma clinic. She gave me a large dose of a potion called Skele-Grow, and by morning I had a full set of bones again. I actually felt better afterward, since that arm had never quite healed right after my cousin Dudley and his gang broke it when I was nine. I had to set that one myself, you see…"

"HARRY!?" all three girls chorused. Scratching the back of his head sheepishly, Harry began to tell another story.

Out in the acolyte hall, Rei tore her eyes away from Black-san to look down at her grandfather. "Grandpa, I think there's something really wrong with Potter-san…"


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I'm not Henry the 8th, I'm not. Henry the 8th, I'm not, I'm not. I also didn't create Harry Potter or Sailor Moon, I'm just borrowing them to perform bizarre experiments on.

This was the chapter that fought me every step of the way, it feels like. My plans went one way, and each day's writing kept going another. In the end, I ended up somewhere in the middle. Hopefully, the next chapter will be better-behaved.

* * *

**_Perhaps Three Days Ago…_**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was a man of many middle names and even more titles. His favorite title was Headmaster, but his favorite nickname had been 'gifted' to him by a trio of particularly-irreverent Muggle-born Hufflepuffs in the mid-Seventies. When it first reached his ears, he had been so tickled by its absurdity that it had rather stuck in his head and only the sharp eyes and ill humor of Professor McGonagall had stopped him from sending out official correspondence signed 'Albus Percival Spam Spam Gambolputty Spam Gutenabend Sausage-Egg-and-Spam Spam Spam Chudley Cannons Hillchester von Dumbledore of Ulm.'

The following summer, Albus had taken the time to hunt down the origins of the bizarre nickname and had become acquainted with the works of a rather peculiar group of Muggle comedians. Sadly, the humor hadn't quite survived translation into the Wizarding World, and his attempt at lightening the mood at Order of the Phoenix meetings by calling everyone present Bruce had fallen rather flat. These days, Albus tended to keep the jokes he found funniest to himself and stick with dry observations and the occasional silliness aimed at amusing the students. For example, the Hogwarts school song had been a prank when first performed in 1744, one that had resurfaced every decade or so for the next two centuries. Headmaster Dippet had attempted to ruthlessly stamp it out, but when Albus had taken over he had made it a yearly tradition. The students loved the silliness of it (at least the young ones did), and the staff put up with it since it was only once or twice a year.

On the day when everything went wrong, Albus Dumbledore's first clue that there was a problem was a sudden silence. It wasn't a particularly loud noise that he was missing, but it was one that had been part of the background noise of his office for more than a decade and it only took a minute or two for him to notice its absence. The Potter Ward Alarm – known mainly inside his head as The Machine That Goes Ping' – was silent. Moving rather quickly for a wizard of his advanced years, Dumbledore all but leapt to the shelf of instruments. Yes, The Machine That Goes Ping was no longer making its characteristic noise, but it wasn't broken. The wards at Privet Drive were gone. Worse, the little silver device that monitored Harry Potter's health was running very sluggishly, only emitting a little trickle of haze rather than the puffs of colored smoke that would tell him something about the boy's state of health.

Dumbledore paused only to summon a House Elf and bid it to tell his deputy that he was leaving on urgent business, then he Disapparated with a loud crack. (Despite what a certain book said, you _could_ Apparate at Hogwarts, but only if you were the person in command of the wards) Such was Dumbledore's sense of urgency that he re-appeared in the Durskey's kitchen rather than on their front walk or up the street or anywhere else the slightest bit subtle, and it was immediately punished when Petunia Dursley screamed and threw a skillet full of fried potatoes at him. The hot, greasy vegetables did him little harm, but his beard, glasses, and one of his favorite robes were now covered in smears of grease.

"Where is Harry?" he demanded, peering at the horse-faced woman angrily.

"You!" Petunia shrieked as she realized who she'd just attacked with her dinner. "How dare you come into my house uninvited and-"

"WHERE IS HARRY?" Dumbledore said again, this time letting a little magic creep into his voice to make it thunder through the room.

"He's gone," she sniffed. "And good riddance."

"What have you done with him? If you have thrown him out into the street again, Petuna Evans Dursley…"

Right about then, Vernon Dursley came into the kitchen, waving a cricket bat in one meaty fist. "Ah-ha! I knew it had to be one of you freaks again. Step away from my wife!"

Dumbledore didn't have time for this. Without drawing his wand, he glared at Mr. Dursley and turned his bat into a bundle of thistles (which were immediately dropped as they stabbed into Vernon's hand), then banished him to the nearest wall, stuck him to it, and gagged him. He turned back to Petunia. "Where is your nephew, Petunia?"

"We didn't throw him out," she sniffed. "One of your other freak schools came with an offer to take him out of the country and off of our hands, so we signed over guardianship to them."

Albus's face went blank with surprise. "Another school? And you signed over your rights to Harry? Why would you do such a foolish and cruel thing?"

"We never wanted him in the first place!" Petunia hissed. "If you hadn't tricked us into taking that little brat we'd have been shut of this whole m…. _unnaturalness_ once and for all!"

"Your lives were in danger, and Harry's presence here has kept you protected for all these years…"

"Danger YOU brought on us!" she shrieked. "We were HAPPY living without your kind around, and YOU had to ruin it! God only knows what these …_blood wards_ of yours have been doing to us! To Dudley! Well now we're shut of you all, legally and fairly, and GOOD BLOODY RIDDANCE!"

Dumbledore frowned. He had only met Lily Evans' sister twice in years past, once when a rather unwilling Petunia had been dragged to Lily's wedding by her parents, and the second when he came to lay the protective wards on the Dursley's home and impress upon them the necessity of their keeping Harry. Obviously he'd underestimated the depth of the woman's resentment. "What school did you send him to, Petunia? Where has he been taken?"

"It was a school in -…" she began to say, then suddenly her voice stopped. "…" "…" "- !" She tried to get the words out, but they wouldn't come. Her voice was gone.

Frowning even more, Dumbledore removed Vernon's gag. Vernon immediately launched into a torrent of abuse and insults, only to be cut short by a glare from the old wizard. "Mr. Dursley, simply tell me where your nephew has gone and I will leave. I do not enjoy your company any more than you enjoy mine."

"If we're lucky, he's in Hell where he belongs! But the school we sent him to was in –" Vernon lost his voice as well.

Petunia had tried to recover hers with a glass of water and now buttermilk, but to no avail. She was trying to force herself to cough when Dumbledore's hand fell on her shoulder. "Please be calm, Petunia. If you will permit me to examine you, I will see what can be done about this." Petunia straightened up and folded her arms defensively, but held still as the wizard cast a few diagnostic spells and waved his wand around her like a metal detector. Finally, he sighed. "There is nothing I can do for you, this is something you brought upon yourselves. Simply put, you are both under the effects of a magical contract. Any attempt to tell a magical person where your nephew has gone results in the loss of your voice. This is temporary, however, your voices will return in a month or so – at least until the next time you cause it to happen. Since you willingly signed the contract, however, there is nothing I can do to get you out of it that wouldn't be worse than silencing you. I suggest that you take a vacation until this clears, or make a sign that you have acute laryngitis."

"There is also a second contract that you are under, as well, but…" The clock struck six, and upstairs Dudley Dursley began to sing. Vernon and Petunia tried to sing as well, but no sound came from their lips. "I believe that you will find this one more of a nuisance than anything." From the irritated looks on their faces, Dumbledore guessed that they had already been aware of this one.

Thinking, Albus conjured an illusion of Igor Karkaroff. "Did you sign Harry over to this man?" When they shook their heads, he changed it to Olympe Maxime. "Was it her?" Again, negative. With a sigh he tried Peter Pettigrew, just to be on the safe side. They shook their heads, and did the same for illusions of Remus Lupin, Arthur Weasley, Cornelius Fudge, Alastor Moody, Lucius Malfoy, and Tom Riddle. Running low on plausible suspects, Dumbledore finally shook his head. "Did you by any chance keep a copy of the forms you signed?" They shook their heads. "Were they written on paper or parchment?" he asked, holding up samples of the two. Petunia pointed at the parchment, then at the paper. "Interesting… Thank you for your time, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley. Enjoy the rest of your evening." With a scowl that belied his polite words, Dumbledore vanished. It took another two hours for Vernon to become unstuck from the wall, but Dumbledore wouldn't have cared much had he remembered. He'd had quite enough Dursley-ness for one day.

From there, Professor Dumbledore went straight to the Ministry Department of Records, where he immediately dismissed the all-too-curious clerk back to his desk and went through the files himself. Decades of dealing with the Wizengamot, the International Confederation of Wizards, and the Hogwarts library had given him phenomenal skill at skimming pages of the written word while gleaning out the important details and the patience to do this for long periods – skills that would have never developed (or been needed that much) if the Wizarding World had ever bothered to learn how to write a proper index or adopt the Dewey Decimal System. Two hours later, Dumbledore had determined that nothing had been filed with the Ministry about a change of guardianship or of schools for Harry Potter. Curious, he reflected. It was time to go to a more reliable source of information.

When he left, the clerk immediately tried to determine just what it was the Chief Warlock had been after (he was that curious and that bored), but since everything had been returned to its proper place he couldn't be sure of anything. With a sigh, the clerk went back to reading the latest issue of Naughty Witch magazine (the articles _were_ superb), which he'd charmed to look like a Ministry report on agriculture in the Lake District.

Upon leaving the Ministry, Dumbledore's next stop was Gringott's, where he made an appointment to speak with the Potter Account Manager, one Gnashfang. Goblins, as Albus had learned over the decades, respected two things, money and cunning – though they were practically the same thing in Goblin eyes, they believed that money would always come to the cunning and that without cunning money would quickly depart. A close third, however, was their pride. Goblin pride was easily-irritated, and often rubbed raw by their daily dealings with human wizards. Many wars had been fought between wizards and Goblins before a peace treaty had permitted the establishment of Gringott's Bank. It wasn't the only wizarding bank in Britain, merely the best and the most famous. The bank provided two very large benefits to wizarding society, the first being that the Goblins had a well-established reputation for making anyone bold enough to steal from them or the vaults under their protection regret being born, thus cutting down on attempted bank robberies considerably. The second benefit was that so long as their retainer fees were paid, the Goblins were a scrupulously-fair third party in all business or legal negotiations they were involved in. If the Goblins were involved, the exact letter of the law would be adhered to and every line of a contract would be enforced. If you didn't like it, then their attitude was that you should do something about your laws or next time pay them to write your contract.

The unspoken benefit of Gringott's was that it gave the Goblins a good reason to be a little less touchy about their pride. Wizards continued to be condescending and often rude to the Goblins (a fact that Dumbledore lamented but curiously did nothing about), but so long as no serious offenses were committed the Goblins would salve their pride with wizard gold rather than declare another war. The Gramhault Treaty of 1706 (which was often glossed over in History of Magic due to Professor Binns' fascination with the wars themselves) spelled out the entire list of offenses that could lead to war, and avoiding them had become an unconscious part of wizarding culture by the end of the 18th century. Asking to see an Account Manager was not on that list, but it was still better to make an appointment. Sadly, it was nearly the end of the business day, and the Goblins kept banker's hours unless _very_ well compensated to do otherwise. Dumbledore made an appointment for the next morning and returned to Hogwarts.

The next morning, after avoiding Professor McGonagall's questions, Dumbledore returned to the bank. The lobby was nearly empty, but Dumbledore had the distinct feeling that every teller in the large room was watching him with amusement. After a few polite words with the head teller, he was conducted downstairs to Gnashfang's office. Depth, rather than height, was the mark of status with Goblins, and Gnashfang conducted his business on a floor not much above the vaults themselves. The Potter Account was substantial in its own right, but it was also only one of the accounts that Gnashfang managed.

Gnashfang was an older Goblin, though it took considerable experience to determine much beyond that. Many senior Goblins liked to make ostentatious shows of wealth to impress their clients and in that Gnashfang wasn't different, but his method of showing off was. Where others had gold-plated chairs and open chests of treasure (along with guards to keep them from wandering off), Gnashfang had a voluptuous human secretary in his outer office. Even more surprising, she was working at what Dumbledore barely recognized as something like a Muggle electric typewriter with a glass-fronted box attached to it. The Knut finally dropped in his head. "Miss Dekins, isn't it? Ravenclaw, class of '87?"

She slid her wire-framed glasses down her nose to smile prettily up at him. "Why Professor Dumbledore, how good to see you again! I saw your name down on Mister Gnashfang's list for today, but I didn't know you were his client."

"I am not, sadly, my own accounts are not substantial enough to attract the attention of an experienced manager. But is that one of those electric computational devices? How on earth do you have it working in Diagon Alley?"

Miss Dekins smiled mischievously. "Well to begin with, we're not in Diagon Alley, we're in Gringott's. There isn't a lot of wizarding magic down here, you see. Also, this is a special variety of computer the bank is testing out. The casing is insulated with copper and silk, which cuts down on the effects of ambient magic considerably. As for the electricity it needs, well, Gringott's has been wired for electricity for years. Most wizards just assume that the light source inside the lamp shade is a light rune or an enchanted candle rather than an electric bulb."

As Dumbledore looked up at the light fixture on the ceiling and tried to process what he'd just learned, a small lamp lit on Miss Dekins' desk. "Professor Dumbledore, Mister Gnashfang is ready to see you now," she said cheerfully.

Startled from his distraction, the aged wizard nodded and stepped through into the inner office. Gnashfang's unusual sense of style continued here, where the walls were paneled in polished oak rather than chiseled stone and the floor was covered with a very attractive and lush Persian rug. The office was moderately-lit by wall sconces on the sides of the room, but the desk itself was brightly illuminated by a pair of electric lamps with delicate stained-glass shades. The Goblin himself wore a well-tailored grey silk suit that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Business District even if its wearer would. He responded to Dumbledore's traditional and well-pronounced Goblin greeting with one of his own, then waved the wizard to the over-stuffed wingback chair near the desk. Dumbledore sank into it with a sigh, for it was very comfortable. Miss Dekins brought in a tray of tea and scones for Dumbledore before swaying her way back out again.

"Now that the pleasantries have been observed, what brings the Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump to my door today?" Gnashfang asked with typical Goblin bluntness.

Dumbledore was still staring after the departed young woman. "Strange… I seem to remember Miss Dekins graduating with High Honors in several subjects…"

"She did indeed, and scored above 100% on her Arithmancy NEWT."

"And yet she holds a mere secretarial position?"

Gnashfang laughed. "Professor Dumbledore, you of all people should know better than to judge by appearances. A truly good secretary is not a mere anything. That young human can tell me everything I need to know about a customer just from observing them waiting in her office. She is also a brilliant research assistant familiar with both Wizarding and Muggle methods, speaks two foreign languages, and is a licensed trader in the London Stock Exchange. In the last three years, the accounts under my management have seen their investment returns improve twenty-two percent thanks to her advice. I've been told that her tea is terrible, though." Dumbledore, who had just taken a sip, had to agree. "Don't feel too poorly, Chief Warlock, that young human takes great pains to make other humans, wizards especially, underestimate her. I gather that she is considered a very attractive member of your species."

"That…would be an …accurate assessment," Dumbledore said with embarrassment. Heavens, he was over a hundred and fifty and even he couldn't help but notice. He didn't precisely remember her looking that …glamorous at Hogwarts, though.

"To my kind she would be considered deplorably ugly, but given the results she produces I find I really don't care. Now then, I presume you care here to discuss something important?"

Dumbledore tried to recover himself, he'd been off-balance ever since yesterday and it was NOT a feeling he cared for. "Yes, I am here because you have been entrusted with the finances and legal details of the Potter Estate since Charlus Potter's death."

"Yes, James Potter should have taken more responsibility for his family's finances, but after his graduation he seemed more concerned with Auror training and his mate. As for young Harry Potter, I hope I shall be able to start acquainting him within the next few years with his family's wealth and the management thereof."

"I should prefer that Mister Potter be left to enjoy his childhood while he has it…" Dumbledore began.

"I'm sure you should prefer a great many things, Professor Dumbledore, but your preferences are not as relevant to the Potter Estate as you like to think."

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed. "You know where Harry Potter is."

The Goblin smiled. "And you do not."

"For his own safety, I demand to know where he has been taken and by whom."

"By what authority do you demand this? You are by no means a member of the Potter family."

"As the headmaster of Harry's school…" Dumbledore began.

A document was slid across the desktop toward him. "This was delivered to your Deputy Headmistress, about fifteen minutes ago." Albus picked it up and read it. It was a notice that Harry Potter was being withdrawn from Hogwarts by his guardian.

"As his guardian…"

Gnashfang shook his head. "You are not his guardian, Professor. You may have acted as his guardian while his guardian was prevented from performing his duties, but the primary responsibility was never yours."

"…Sirius Black."

The Goblin grinned. "Indeed so."

"Sirius Black is wanted by the Ministry…"

"The Ministry of Magic also wants a great many golden Galleons, but they have no legal basis to issue a warrant for them either. It seems that Lord Black was never convicted in any court besides that of public opinion, therefore his guardianship of young Mister Potter is still valid."

"And his escape from Azkaban?"

"Removing one's self from the island of Azkaban was not against the law until September of last year, well after Lord Black's …self-authorized release."

"And yet Harry lives with his Muggle relations during the summers, they are his guardians in the eyes of British law…" Dumbledore tried to stall.

"Perhaps they were, but since they officially signed away their custody of Mister Potter to Lord Black he quite clearly no longer lives with them." Gnashfang produced a copy of the papers the Dursleys had signed in their mad rush to send Harry away. "These were filed with Her Majesty's Government two weeks ago."

"As Chief Warlock, I can…"

"…sit there and look very wise while you preside over domestic politics, not order anyone to chase after a legal guardian who has taken his legal ward beyond the boundaries of your jurisdiction in a legal fashion."

"The International Confederation -"

"- is a diplomatic association that negotiates treaties and trade agreements and administrates the Quidditch World Cup. Their authority extends no further than the member nations permit, as you well know."

Dumbledore sighed. "Can you at least tell me where they have gone?"

"I can," Gnashfang said with a smile. "But I won't. Lord Black did send us a letter for you, however."

Dumbledore opened the envelope and unfolded the sheet of parchment.

_Dear Headmaster,_

_ If you are reading this, then you've discovered that I've taken over custody of Harry and had James & Lilly's will executed finally. Did you know that the Dursley house was the LAST place James & Lily wanted Harry to go? Something to do with their violent hatred of anything magical and of the Potters in particular. Heavens, the Hogwarts elves were higher on that list than they were. Really, what were you thinking? Also, thank you for your tireless efforts to see justice done in my own case, my good Chief Warlock. Yes, to be clear, that was sarcasm. To put it simply, I have withdrawn Harry from Hogwarts and England for his own safety. According to what he has told me, he has been in mortal peril multiple times a year three years in a row so far, which tells me that either you are starting to lose your grasp on your own school, or that you are permitting these things to happen for some reason._

_I have taken him to a nation without a magical government, and will be supervising his education myself. As I have somehow inherited my family's Estate, I trust I shall have no problem hiring all the tutors Harry needs. Feel free to send Harry letters through the Goblins, I'm not holding him captive and I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you how he likes it here. But rest assured, he will not be returning to Hogwarts any time soon._

_Sirius Orion Black_

Dumbledore frowned and examined the envelope. It was unmarked, and therefore not the one the letter had arrived in. He looked up at Gnashfang, who had the smuggest expression he'd ever seen on a Goblin. "I am going to guess that you have recently become the manager for the Black Estate as well."

"Indeed I have… As Harry's guardian, I allowed him to see the income charts for the last fifteen years on the Potter Account and he offered me the management of the Black Estate on the spot. I've been reviewing their account history, and their monies have been sadly mismanaged. I doubt it was their previous manager's fault, precisely, the Blacks seemed to have particular ideas of how their money should be invested and a bad habit of donating to the Death Eaters. The Black Estate is still very rich, but less so than it ought to be. Miss Dekins and I will do our best to rectify that, of course, though I believe I will have to hire her some more help."

"We have produced a very fine group of graduates this year…" Dumbledore mused.

"I'll be the judge of that. Skills in Arithmancy and research are vital, of course, but a flexible mind is even more important. We prefer to let the dull plodders who cannot tell the difference between facts and answers work for the Ministry. And of course, Muggle-Borns are preferable to Purebloods for this sort of work."

"Why is that?" Dumbledore asked, intrigued.

"Because they have less to catch up on. Gringott's does not limit itself to the magical community when it comes to investments, and most Purebloods are completely ignorant if not outright dismissive of Muggles. It takes a great deal of time to break them of that attitude, and even more to bring them up to snuff on how Muggles do business. A Muggle-Born or a Half-blood at least has a basis for understanding what they haven't learned at Hogwarts."

"We have always strived to give our students the best magical education possible…"

"And that is part of the problem, Dumbledore, you automatically emphasize the magical portion and completely ignore everything else. The Muggles out-number you more than a hundred to one, you would be wise to prepare your students better to live among them." Gnashfang touched a button on his desk. "Miss Dekins, bring me this coming year's Muggle Studies text, please."

Miss Dekins swayed in on her tall heels and laid a book down on the desk in front of Professor Dumbledore before swaying out again. "Do yourself a favor, Professor," the Goblin said. "Peruse the chapters on Muggle science and technology in that book, then take a walk around downtown London and see what you recognize from it – and what you don't. In the meantime, let me sum things up for you. I am aware of where Lord Black and Mr. Potter are, but I have been asked not to tell you. My office is willing to forward any letters to them that you may wish to send, but be aware that all tracking charms and other enchantments will be removed prior to delivery and you will be billed for our time spent doing so. Harry Potter is no longer a student at your school and no longer residing in England, thus placing himself beyond your authority. Sirius Black has yet to be convicted of anything, so as long as he remains outside of England no one is likely to arrest him. Between the two of them, they have enough money to buy a villa in the Caribbean and spend the rest of their lives drinking fruity alcohol and fishing for bikinis – Miss Dekins' phrase, not mine, and I'm not certain I want to know what it means – without a care in the world. I'm sure your concern for them is genuine, but perhaps you should respect their wishes. Do you have any other concerns, or are we finished here?"

Dumblefore sighed and stood up, taking the book. "Thank you for your time, Mister Gnashfang. I shall consider your words." Miss Dekins escorted him out, asking after her favorite teachers as they went.

Half an hour later he was back at Hogwarts, where Minerva McGonagall practically pounced on him. "What is the meaning of this, Albus?" she asked, waving a letter that had arrived in his absence. "How could you permit those terrible Muggles to withdraw Harry from school?" She assumed that he already knew all about it because when it came to Harry Potter, he usually did.

Dumbledore sighed and hung his cap on a peg. "Harry's relatives had very little to do with it, I'm afraid. It seems that Sirius Black tricked them into signing over the custody of Harry to him, and he is the guardian who has withdrawn Harry from Hogwarts."

She folded her arms and glared, an expression he'd gotten from her too many times over the years. He could even remember receiving it from her a time or two during her student days, long ago. "Even if what you told me last month about Black's innocence is true, that man is in no shape to be a fit guardian for a child. Twelve years in Azkaban, Albus! How could he still be sane after that?"

"I do not know, Minerva, but I have my suspicions. When I spoke to him after his rescue, he seemed quite coherent and capable, if a bit obsessed with Peter Pettigrew's escape. I did manage to impress upon him that Harry Potter needed his godfather more than he needed revenge, which makes this turn of events all the more ironic when I think about it."

McGonagall sighed. "Still, why would he withdraw Harry from Hogwarts? He should know that this is the best place for him."

Albus simply handed her the letter from Sirius. "He doesn't seem to think so…"

She read the letter quickly, since it was quite short. "Mortal peril? He's one to talk, given some of the wild adventures he and his cohorts got into. I seem to recall him being the one who thought it would be funny to introduce another student to a barely-transformed werewolf, for example."

"James Potter and his friends were a quartet of hooligans, to be sure, but their antics were much in the same vein as the Weasley Twins as I recall it. They got _themselves_ into their scrapes, whereas young Harry has generally been thrust into dangers not of his own making." Dumbledore still wasn't resigned to Harry's departure, but he had to admit that Sirius did have a bit of a point.

"So they've left England, then. Where have they gone?"

"That is an excellent question, which I am still trying to find the answer to. My only real clue is that it is a nation without a magical government, which there are more of than you might think. Account Manager Gnashfang also mentioned the Caribbean, but I am certain that was an intentional reference and not to be trusted."

"So you have no leads, then?" McGonagall asked.

Dumbledore shook his head. "None that would not require a great deal of detective work in the Muggle world or the creation of an entirely new class of tracking spell."

"Really. No leads at all?"

He looked at her and sighed. "Apparently I have overlooked something terribly obvious, Minerva, in the interest of not inflaming this headache would you do me the honor of enlightening me?"

"Have you considered asking Mr. Potter's friends? I have received no letters of withdrawal from Miss Granger or Mister Weasley, but as closely-knit as those three are I doubt Mr. Potter would go anywhere without telling at least one of them."

The aged headmaster rubbed his forehead. "Yes, you are quite correct. Minerva, could you perhaps make a visit to them? I'm afraid that if I turned up on their doorsteps they might think something dreadful has happened to our young Mister Potter. Also, I need to have a word with Professor Burbage.:

Minerva sighed. "I wish you luck there, she's already departed for her vacation. She's taking a Mediterranean cruise, and traveling strictly without magic."

"Without magic? Really?" Dumbledore didn't disapprove, but he had to admit that it did worry him a little. The Muggle world was not a malevolent place, as far as he knew, but there were risks that a wizard or witch might not know to watch out for. He himself had nearly been run down by a truck once.

"At her insistence, I have her wand in my office. She does have an emergency portkey, but she feels she should spend her vacation this year doing without magic as much as possible."

"I must say, that's rather surprising of her."

"Yes, well, I suspect that she got a bit overwhelmed by having Miss Granger in her third-year class this year. Apparently my …rather enthusiastic young Lioness spent the year correcting the textbook and all but teaching the class."

They shared a brief chuckle over that, then Dumbledore shook his head. "It seems I will be spending at least part of this summer revising the Muggle Studies curriculum." At McGonagall's querying look, he gestured to the book on his desk. "Account Manager Gnashfang advised me to take a good long look at what we are teaching our students in that course. In my experience, when a Goblin of his stature offers unsolicited – and unpaid – advice, it is either because he hopes to profit from your taking it, or because he will profit by your ignoring it. In both cases, it would be foolish to disregard the advice."

"Then yes, I will make a visit to Mr. Potter's friends this afternoon," Minerva concluded. "I cannot help worrying about what Sirius Black will try to teach that young man, but I suppose it _could_ be worse…"


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Harry Potter. I am also not planning to cross-breed pigs and firecrabs in the hope of getting self-frying bacon. I know this is something the world might want, but given how the Blast-Ended Skrewts turned out...

Well, I know _**I**_ didn't expect to be updating on time this week. This chapter just about exploded out of me in a thankfully non-_Aliens_ kind of way. I hope you enjoy it, but we'll see if the Fem-ish Inquisition comes after me for this one...

* * *

Perhaps McGonagall was right to worry, for Sirius Black was teaching Harry how to dodge spells the hard way. Three days of hard work and countless Strengthening Charms had rendered the acolyte hall in excellent condition and able to withstand moderate spellfire with little more than scorching. Sirius and Harry faced each other from either end of the hall. "The rules are simple," Sirius said, holding his wand at the ready. Harry's wand was on a shelf behind Sirius. "Get from where you are to where I am. Once you can lay a hand on me, you've won. Clear?"

"Clear."

"The first couple times, I'm going to limit myself to Stinging Hexes. Do your best to not get hit by them, they won't be bad enough to really hurt you but you should NEVER assume that a spell headed your way is harmless. The first time you make that mistake may be the last."

"What about blocking the spells, can't I do that?" Harry asked as he looked around the hall.

"Sure, there are spells that can protect you, however, I'm not going to teach you how to block until I'm satisfied that you've learned how to dodge. Battering away at each other with spells is fine if you're a heavyweight wizard like Dumbledore or Voldemort. Maybe you'll be on their level some day, but right now you're a snot-nosed punk and you're better off learning how to not get hit in the first place. Ready? Begin."

Harry opened his mouth to protest that he wasn't ready, only to have Sirius zap him with a Stinging Hex. The spell felt like a hard but brief pinch on his shoulder, and in fact hurt a lot less than Dr. Mizuno's ear grip, but it didn't feel good. "An enemy isn't going to wait for you to be ready, Harry. Now get moving before you get hit again."

Harry got moving. At first he ran straight toward Sirius, but two quick Hexes in a row showed him why that wasn't a good idea. Sirius spared him the lecture this time, and Harry changed his tactics without one. The next few he managed to side-step, but in the process he found himself against a wall. "Don't let yourself get trapped," Sirius said as he fired off more Stinging Hexes. "There's lots of ways to use a wall in a fight, but don't cling to it if you're not at an angle to get some cover from it. A wall behind you is the just the plate you're being served up on." While lecturing, Sirius kept up a slower but steady stream of Hexes.

"How are you casting those while talking?" Harry asked, at the cost of getting zapped again.

"Non-verbal casting, either you start learning it in your Fifth of Sixth year, or you learn it in the Auror Academy like I did. We couldn't keep a Defense teacher in our day either. Casting without the incantation steals some strength from the spell, but it doesn't make it harmless – as you just found out."

Harry was in motion again, pushing himself off from the wall. He ran quickly in a diagonal fashion, hitting the fall wall and pushing himself off from that. He stumbled and nearly fell once when a lucky shot from Sirius clipped his leg, but he made himself keep going. A few zigs and zags later, and Harry slapped his godfather's shoulder. Sirius lowered his wand immediately. "That was pretty good for your first time," he said, breathing a little heavily. "You're in better shape than I am."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I've spent three years practicing Quidditch with an obsessive team captain, what were YOU doing?"

Sirius opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a voice from the doorway. "That looks like fun, may I try it?" A pretty girl about Harry's height stepped into the acolyte hall. She had long golden blonde hair down past her hips, tied back with a cheerful red ribbon. She was wearing a Sailor Senshi uniform with an orange skirt and dark blue bows, with what looked like a large topaz at the center of her chest.

"Of course, miss…? I don't think we've met." Sirius said, just a little wary.

She giggled a little. "Oh, of course. I'm Sailor Venus! So, where do I start?"

Sirius pointed at the far end, and she walked down there before twirling around and taking a ready stance. Harry moved to the doorway, and Sirius raised his wand. "Begin," he said, casting his first Stinger non-verbally.

Harry's jaw dropped. Sailor Venus moved like she was part-bird, floating through the air and touching ground only when it suited her. Her long hair floated behind her like a comet's tail as she leapt, spun, dodged, and danced around Sirius's Hexes. Sirius wasn't holding back against her like he had been against Harry, and she still wasn't getting hit. As she approached he started laying down heavier and heavier fire, and finally he let loose with a slashing wave-like spell at elbow-height. Sailor Venus dropped to the magically-treated floor without a second thought, sliding toward Sirius and coming up to tap him on the tip of his nose with a gloved finger. "Boop!" she chirped happily. "This means I win, right?"

Sirius looked down at her for a moment, and then laughed. "Oh, Merlin, I wish I could introduce you to my old instructor, Sailor Venus. Old Moody would probably offer to make you his granddaughter on the spot."

"Well, I've only got two sets of grandparents, is he the kind of grandpa that likes to spoil children?"

"No, he's more likely to buy you a knife and show you how to use it," Sirius laughed. "And he'd also tell you to put some pants on."

Sailor Venus looked down at her uniform. "Nope, sorry, I'll have to pass on that then. I really like this skirt; it makes my legs look great!"

Sirius coughed a couple times to keep from saying anything that would reveal himself to be either A: old enough to be her father, or B: a male human being who'd caught himself checking out a girl half his age. "You alright over there, Harry?" he finally asked.

Harry blinked a couple times, and then grinned. "That was _brilliant_! Can you teach me how to do that, Sailor Venus?"

She giggled again and shook her head, making her hair float in golden waves. "You are his and Mamoru-kun's student, at least for this kind of stuff," she said cheerfully. "Besides, I'm kind of cheating."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

Sailor Venus concentrated for a moment, and then she was enveloped in golden light. When it faded, Minako stood in her place.

Harry blinked. "Mina? You're Sailor Venus? Wait…" He slapped himself on the forehead. "Why didn't I recognize you? Your hair doesn't change at all, you weren't wearing a mask, Usagi even _told_ me you were Sailor Venus a few days ago! Bloody hell!"

"Language, Harry!" Mina sang with a smile, booping his nose as well. "It's part of the magic of when I transform, you see. Unless someone sees me change or I tell them I'm Sailor Venus, the magic keeps people from recognizing me. Also, cameras won't take a clear picture of me, even video has the details distorted just enough that they can't tell who it is. You wouldn't believe how much time Queen Beryl's goons spent trying to figure out who we really were. I even got accused of being Sailor Moon a few times," she said with another giggle.

"That's brilliant, but what did you mean about cheating?"

She clasped her hands behind her and rocked on her heels. "Well, you see, the Senshi transformation isn't just about protecting my identity, it does a lot of other things for me. I'm pretty athletic, but I'm not THAT graceful on my own, the transformation makes me faster, stronger, and more agile. Sailor Jupiter can break a brick wall in half with a straight punch, but Mako-chan would break her hand if she tried that. Don't get me wrong, we _have_ improved in our own rights, but the transformation takes what we have and makes it better."

"It's also a defense against injury," said another new voice from behind Harry. He turned to see a man standing behind him. Moving out of the doorway, Harry let the newcomer in.

"Harry, Sirius, this is our ally, Tuxedo Mask. He's been watching out for us from the very beginning.

Harry looked him over and frowned. There _was_ something familiar about this guy… He was tall and lean, nearly the same height as Sirius though his old-fashioned top hat made him seem much taller. He wore a very formal tuxedo suit, complete with bow tie and a waist-length silk cape lined with red. A white domino mask hid his eyes, and he held a white-topped cane in one hand. He looked like he was about to sweep some girl off to a ball rather than fight a battle, but Harry had repeatedly had it drilled into him that appearances were deceiving in this war. Besides, in a way it made more sense than sailor suits and miniskirts. At least Tuxedo Mask had a stick to hit the bad guys with if they got too close. Still, the feeling of familiarity didn't go away. Finally, he hesitantly asked "…Mamoru?"

Tuxedo Mask nodded, and the transformation melted away to reveal his teacher. "As you might have guessed, today I'm going to start you working through how to transform. I asked Minako to help out with the demonstrations, even though you might not be able to use the same method she does."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Close the door, please. Minako?"

Harry closed the door behind him, and Minako produced an enameled wand similar to Ami's. "VENUS STAR POWER!" she cried, and the wand erupted in golden light. Harry's eyes bulged as her clothes disappeared, and were replaced by her sailor uniform a second or two later. Flashing him a V with her fingers, she winked. "Pretty amazing, huh?"

"Why does it make you _naked?_" Harry asked, flabbergasted.

Sailor Venus thought about it, then shrugged. "I dunno, it just does. It usually happens so fast that we barely notice, and we've kinda gotten used to it. Besides, it's just skin. We're all covered in the stuff, you know?

"But you were _naked!_" Harry said again.

Sailor Venus giggled and hugged him. "You're so cute when you're embarrassed. Harry, it's okay! You were supposed to watch me transform so you could see what it's like. It doesn't last long enough for you to _do_ anything besides get a glimpse, and looking doesn't make you a pervert or a horrible person. Boys are _supposed_ to like seeing girls; it just means you're normal." She booped his nose again. "It's how you _treat_ us that matters, whether we're wearing clothes or not."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Mamoru and Sirius looked at each other and shrugged. Apparently the lesson Harry was going to get today wasn't going to be the one they had planned on. Personally, Sirius didn't mind, learning about girls was important too. Mamoru, on the other hand, was getting increasingly uncomfortable. Sirius motioned toward the door at the other end of the hall, and the two tall men quietly walked away. Meanwhile, Sailor Venus sat down on a bench and motioned for Harry to join her. When he sat down, she scooted up and put an arm around his shoulders.

"It's like this, Harry. Girls are a little tricky. Nature has made us to be beautiful, whether we like it or not. Some of us are naturally beautiful, some of us have to work harder to polish what we've got, and some of us will never be pretty no matter how hard we try. It's not fair but that's just how life is, you know? The thing is, we are compelled to try and be pretty in a lot the same way as boys feel compelled to compete. I'm not saying that boys have to do _this_ and girls have to do _that_, but we each have something that's a little more inherent to who we are as girls or boys. Because our very natures compel us to try and be beautiful, we're _very_ insecure about how we look."

Sailor Venus glowed and faded to reveal Minako again. "Look at me, Harry, I'm pretty hot, right?" He nodded, and she smiled and squeezed him. "Thanks! But the thing is, I have mornings where I get up and my face feels greasy and my hair won't settle down right and I've got a pimple somewhere I can't cover it up, and I feel ugly and fat. Even if no one else thinks I'm ugly, it's how I feel inside. And when I go out and I'm around other girls, I start comparing myself to them. When I feel pretty, I worry about whether or not I'm more or less pretty than someone else. When I feel ugly, I feel uglier when I'm with someone I think is prettier than I am – and right then I feel like _everyone_ is prettier than me."

Harry shook his head. "Merlin's pants, I'd go mad if I had to think about all that."

"Yeah, but we can't help it. It's part of what we are. Now, here's where it really gets tricky. Because we're constantly critiquing how we look inside our heads, it makes us a little touchy on the surface. Have you ever seen a boy say something to a girl about her looks, only to have her explode?" He nodded. "Chances are, she was already driving herself crazy worrying about her appearance or about something else, and whatever he said was just the spark that set off the fireworks. It wasn't really his fault, and it wasn't really her fault either, it just happens. As we grow up, we try to learn how to not instinctively explode like that, and boys slowly learn what's likely to make us explode and try to avoid it."

"Now don't forget, this is a generalization. We're all of us different, some of us worry about our looks more than others, and how we look isn't _all_ we think about. Some girls like sports, or books, or cooking, or music, or a hundred different things, just like boys, but I think to some extent all girls care about how they look so it'll always be something that can stress us out. Does this make sense?"

Harry thought about it. "I think I understand what you're saying, but I'm not sure how this makes it okay for me to see you naked."

Mina laughed. "That's not exactly what I was trying to say, but it's in the same county. So you understand that we're driven to be pretty, even though we can be pretty sensitive about it?" He nodded. "Okay, the next step is that we do like to be appreciated for looking good. No girl is going to be angry just because you think she's pretty. It's nice to know that our efforts are paying off, right? At the same time, too much attention for it gets pretty old in a hurry." She pondered for a moment. "Mamoru said that you had some kind of funny title back in your magic community. 'The Living Boy' or something like that."

Harry made a face. "'The Boy-Who-Lived.'"

She nodded and squeezed him again. "How do you feel when people call you that?" _As if I couldn't tell_, she added mentally.

"It's awful, like I'm some kind of carnival attraction. 'Come see Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived! See his famous scar, hear him talk to snakes, only five Sickles a ticket!' They even used that stupid title in the newspaper! I don't know who thought up that bloody thing, but if I ever find out I'm going to hex them."

"And have you ever been recognized for something you actually did?" He nodded, thinking about winning the Quidditch cup. "Feels pretty different, doesn't it?" Mina hugged him, pressing her chest into his side. "Harry, the way you feel about being famous is a lot like how most girls feel about being told that they're pretty. We like it in small doses; it feels good to know that our hard work is accomplishing something. But when it's the only thing anyone can talk about we get frustrated. A great pair of legs and fantastic hair are things that I _have_, not things that I _am_, you know?

Harry nodded. "And I _have_ a scar, not _am_ a scar."

"Exactly!" Mina declared and hugged him again. "So, here's the rules for girls: It's okay to look at us, but if you sit there and stare we'll start to think that we put our shirt on backwards or we've got something stuck in our teeth and get embarrassed and self-conscious. If we really did put our shirt on backwards, just point it out discretely and it'll be okay. If you think we're pretty, it's okay to say so. But if you really want girls to like you, find out what else they like to talk about and move on to talking about that rather than just sticking with how they look. It's also not a good idea to compliment a girl on something she's not intentionally showing you. For example, it's probably safe to say something about my legs. If I minded, I wouldn't be wearing these shorts in public. But if you try to talk about my butt, I'll probably kick yours. Are you with me so far?"

Harry was blushing hard and trying not to stare at Mina's legs or think about her backside, but he managed to nod. "Honestly, with experience you'll be able to start reading a girl's body language about what she's comfortable with and what she isn't, but as a general rule if she wears clothing over it, don't talk about it. Gym class is the exception, she doesn't get to pick what she wears in gym class or at the pool, and so she might feel uncomfortable being complimented on it. Talking about her clothing is okay, but don't talk about what's under the clothing. For example, 'your sweater is very cute, Asami' will get you a smile, but 'that sweater makes your knockers look amazing' will get you slapped, even if it's true. And it's always better to compliment something that's distinctive or unique, since every girl at your school will wear the same uniform."

Mina could see that Harry's eyes were starting to glaze over, so she giggled and changed directions. "Okay, I guess I'd better sum up. It's okay to look at girls, and it's okay to _like_ looking at girls. It's a bit rude to stare, though, and treating us like being pretty is all we are is like treating you like 'the Boy-Who-Lived'. I'm going to tell you a secret, though," she said in a hushed tone and leaned in closer. "It's okay to think about girls. It's even okay to think about naked girls. You can even think about me if you like. But here's the catch – you have to save it for when you're in private. Whatever you think or imagine in private is fine, it belongs to you and no one has the right to tell you that it's wrong or dirty or bad. But you have to _leave_ it in private, alright? When you're actually with a girl, especially in public, you need to be a gentleman. Can you do that for me, Harry?"

By now Harry was blushing so hard he was sure his hair had turned red enough to make him the long-lost seventh Weasley Brother. He managed to nod, and Mina hugged him one more time. "Great! Now why don't you sit here a while and practice your meditation, I'm gonna go see what Rei is up to, okay? See you around, Harry!" Before he could coherently reply, she was on her feet and giving him a wink as she bounced out the door.

Outside, Sirius Black was waiting for her with a big grin and the tip of his wand touching one ear. "Miss Aino, are you sure you're sixteen? I'm thirty-three and **_I_** just learned something."

Mina couldn't help giggling. "Yeah, but you're a boy."

He laughed with her, acknowledging the point. "Seriously, though, how does a girl your age get so insightful?"

She shrugged good-naturedly. "I'm the Senshi of Love, Mister Black, this is the kind of stuff I have to know. And I kind of had to deliver a similar speech to Usagi's little brother last year, so I've had some practice."

Sirius grinned. "Oh really?"

"Yeah, no matter what Usagi may tell you, Shingo's not a bad kid. It's just that puberty kinda hit him all at once and suddenly he realized that his dweeby older sister had some pretty hot friends. He started trying to hang around with us all the time and fetching us snacks and trying to pay awkward compliments and doing dumb things to try and impress us. It was cute in a way, but it made it hard to hold Senshi meetings. Eventually I had to pull him aside and explain that not only was he bowling _way_ out of his league, his behavior wasn't the kind of thing that impresses girls. He was pretty crushed for a while, but I gave him a few tips on how to talk to girls his own age and he's been doing better since."

"Well, thank you for helping Harry," he said with a softer smile. "I care a lot about that kid, but there's so much I don't know how to teach him. His mum and dad were first-timers, so they were learning how to raise a kid as they went, and my own upbringing wasn't an example I'd want anyone to follow. It doesn't help that I missed twelve years of his life…and sixteen years of Ami's…"

Minako reached up to touch his shoulder. "It's okay, Mister Black. None of us have perfect parents. I'm sure Ami and Harry would have been happy to have had you there all along, but that wasn't possible. The important thing is that you're here now and you're trying." A thought suddenly struck her. "Say, you're trying to teach Harry more of your wizard magic, right?"

"As well as I can. I'm pretty rusty, but it's coming back to me."

"Why don't you try teaching Ami too? She loves learning new things, and the way you fixed up that old building was pretty neat!"

"…and it'll give us a chance to get to know each other," he concluded for her. He grinned. "You're a pretty good kid yourself, you know?"

Minako cocked her head and shrugged. "I try. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go check on Rei, she's been hiding in the shrine a lot lately…" Sirius nodded, and Minako waved cheerfully as she walked away.

It was a beautiful summer day, and the shrine's resident crows (which Rei affectionately referred to as the Usual Suspects) were cawing to each other in the trees. Mina often suspected that the cheeky black birds were telling each other jokes, and probably at the expense of the humans that wandered through their domain. They were not remotely tame, but they seemed fond of Rei and often brought her trinkets lost by visitors. One of the birds was perched on a tree root, snitching grains of rice from a bento lunchbox sitting on the ground. Makoto was nearby, laying back in the soft grass and staring up at the sky.

"Feed the birds, tuppence a box," Minako sang as she approached. "Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a box!" The crow fluttered its wings a little before deciding she wasn't going to interrupt its meal.

"Hey, Mina, what's up?" Makoto said sleepily.

"Not much. You're losing your lunch, though."

"Naah, I was already done, he's just helping me with the leftovers. Mamoru walked by a minute ago, is everyone here today?" Makoto lived alone, but her little apartment was only where she slept and cooked. Given a choice, she preferred to spend her out-of-school time at a friend's house or somewhere pleasant and public like the Hikawa Shrine.

"It sure seems that way, but not quite. Mister Black and Harry are here to train with Mamoru and Rei's in the shrine, but I think Ami went to the library. Usagi's family left on their trip this morning, so she'll be gone til next week."

"Where was she going again?" Makoto asked with a yawn.

"Sendai, to visit her grandparents."

"That's right, I remember now. What about you, aren't your parents going anywhere this summer?"

Mina tilted her head back and shrugged. "They're already gone. Mum's in the Riviera, and Dad's in China to visit some factories. They both offered to take me along, but I told them I'd rather stay here with you guys."

"All by yourself, huh?"

She nodded. "For two whole weeks. Say, Mako-chan, why don't you come and stay with me for a few nights? We can stay up late, eat pizza, and watch cheesy movies!"

Makoto smiled and got up, stretching. "You mean _we_ can stay up late and watch movies, and _I_ can _make_ pizza…" she teased good-naturedly.

Mina laughed. "My parents left me more than enough money to order a few pizzas, but if you feel like making it I'm not going to say no."

Makoto sighed and nodded with a smile. She probably _was_ going to end up doing the cooking. It wasn't that her friends expected her to, really, just that they knew she liked to cook and they were all too happy to eat and shower her with praise for it. She liked the praise, but even more she liked seeing her friends happy. Happy, well-fed friends chased away the loneliness, even though Usagi and Rei tended to fight over cookies. With another stretch and a yawn, she caught the glances Minako was shooting at the shrine. "Why don't we get Rei to join us? She could probably use a sleepover or at least an evening away from here."

Minako grinned and grabbed her hand. "Great idea, let's go!" Stepping on the gas, she dragged Makoto toward the shrine. The crow cawed once, and then turned its attention back to finishing the lunchbox.

Inside the shrine, Rei was meditating and praying in front of the sacred flame. It was a warm place to be, especially in the summer, but Rei was never bothered by the heat of the fire. Being out in the sunshine made her sweat, but the fire never did. It was a contradiction she attributed to her Martian ancestry. Fire was her friend, ally, protector, and weapon. And today, like many days over the past few years, she was seeking its guidance.

Harry Potter troubled her. He was a polite young man, and her friends liked him. Ami _was_ his sister, Rei could see the connection between them, tenuous but growing. Minako was thrilled to have a fellow Brit around and she'd always had a 'the more the merrier' outlook anyway. Makoto liked having a boy around that they didn't have to hide things from, but Rei had the irritating suspicion that she planned to practice her flirting skills on him. Usagi was the least-interested in the newcomer, probably because she already had a fourteen-year-old brother and didn't feel the need for another. She didn't seem to dislike Harry-kun, but since he wasn't officially part of the group yet she just didn't seem to have much of an opinion on him. Rei frowned. Sometimes it seemed like Usagi had gotten _more_ self-centered in the last couple years rather than less. She was still open and friendly with her friends, but it seemed more and more like everyone outside of their circle was unimportant to her.

Harry Potter had nothing to do with that, but still there was something very wrong with him. There was an aura of evil hanging over him, centered on his scar, but it didn't seem to touch him directly. He wasn't a yoma, and he didn't _seem_ to be a warrior of the Negaverse but she'd been fooled before. Jedite had even worked at her temple for a few days, back in the beginning, and she hadn't caught on until it was nearly too late. Worse, the evil presence seemed to be something _alive_. Even if it wasn't Harry, it was part of him and she had no way to be sure it wasn't either influencing him or waiting for the right moment to possess him. The Negaverse loved to possess people, to turn good into bad, light into darkness, to take a decent human being and force them to do horrible things. Sometimes they remembered what they had done afterwards, other times they didn't, but always there were consequences. Sometimes, if they got to the possessed person quickly, it was just a few lost minutes. Other times, a person awoke to discover that someone dear to them had been badly hurt.

Rei would not sit by and let that happen here, but before she could act she needed to know what she was facing. It didn't feel like a simple yoma possession, it was much too powerful for that. It could be an angry ghost, but it didn't seem quite like that either. Unfortunately, she didn't have a lot of resources to draw on for information. To most Shinto priests and shrine maidens, ghosts and demons were stories, and their cleansing rituals and blessing rites were more for comfort and peace of mind and tradition than for tangible benefit. To Rei and her grandfather, though, it was all too real. It probably had something to do with the Negaverse, but when there were real angry ghosts and evil spirits, they usually appeared in Rei's neighborhood. Fortunately, her power to cleanse, cure, and exorcise was a lot more real too. Some of it was her training, a lot of it was the power of Mars running through her veins, but if she knew what she was up against she could usually do something about it.

First, though, she had to know what she was facing, and the Sacred Fire hadn't been able to help much. Rei sighed. It was probably time to take a break for a day or two, get some fresh air and relax her mind. Even so, she'd have to keep an eye on this Harry Potter. And his guardian… When her friends came in to find her, Rei's cheeks were a little pink, but not from the fire.


End file.
